


F3AR: Bound in Blood

by TheUnkindledQueen



Category: F.E.A.R. (Video Games)
Genre: Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Reference to Rape, i rewrote fear 3 because the original game sucked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 22:09:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20881457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUnkindledQueen/pseuds/TheUnkindledQueen
Summary: AU: The sons of Alma Wade explore the ruins of the city in hopes of finding their mother. - An AU of F.3.A.R. -





	1. Interval 00: Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> "We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell."
> 
> ~Oscar Wilde
> 
> "Wild, dark times are rumbling toward us, and the prophet who wishes to write a new apocalypse will have to invent entirely new beasts, and beasts so terrible that the ancient animal symbols of St. John will seem like cooing doves and cupids in comparison."
> 
> -HEINRICH HEINE, "Lutetia; or, Paris," Augsberg Gazette, 1842

In 2002, the U.S. Army formed a secret unit dedicated to combating paranormal threats to national security. The unit was named First Encounter Assault Recon. In the year 2025, most of the team was lost to enemy commander Paxton Fettel and his Replica Forces. F.E.A.R. operative known as "Point Man" believed to have escaped from Auburn District shortly after the destruction of Armacham's Origin Facility. His location as well as the location of F.E.A.R. operatives Jin Sun-Kwon and Douglas Holiday are currently unknown.

O

"_Brother..._"

The voice.

"_How much longer will you ignore me?_"

He opened his eyes, staring at the same yellow, stained newspaper wall that he had been looking at for the past several months. It had been a sad change to his normal routine, but nothing had ever really been normal with him. Living here in Auburn, staying under the radar of Armacham wasn't going to change anything, but he wasn't about to go out there. Not when he knew for a fact that they were looking for him. Ever since that incident...ever since he had lost his comrades...

They had called him Point Man. He had no other real name. When they gave it to him, he almost had a sense of humanity from it; like it gave him a personality, a face, a purpose. But lately things had changed. He wasn't sure if he still had such a purpose anymore; the F.E.A.R unit had failed to locate him and even more so, failed to bring through anyone to even look for him at all. He was beginning to think that no one was going to come for him.

The sound of helicopters flying overhead jolted him from his position and he immediately grabbed his two handguns and peered out through a crack in the window. Point Man watched as five Armacham Technology foot soldiers poured from two helicopters that landed in the middle of the abandoned street. One of them was larger; dressed in heavy armor, but it wasn't like what he had seen at the Armacham Facility. This one carried far more power than the others as well as decorative sigils. His body armor seemed to shimmer and displace all around him, making him appear see - through.

"SAVAGE here, all clear," he said, in a deep, commanding voice, "He's here. We'll find him."

"_Copy that_." a voice said through his head set, "_Proceed to first objective_."

Another heavily armored Armacham soldier stepped down at his side. He was wearing different colors on his armor. "VECTOR reporting; split up into two and scan the area!" he commanded to his four smaller group of soldiers.

Immediately, they separated into two smaller groups and worked their way down the streets, clambering into buildings to look for Point Man. He quickly raced down the hallway of the empty building that he had made into his home. He skidded to a halt as an Amracham soldier began to tear down a boarded window. The soldier took one look at him and shouted out.

"He's here!" he called, "I've found him!"

"_Run. They know you're here_."

Point Man aimed at the soldier and plugged a round directly between his eyes, shattering through his protective helmet. A burst of blood stained the wood and immediately, his comrade joined in and attempted to fire off rounds at Point Man. He immediately took off up the stairs and every damn Armacham soldier poured into the building after him. Point Man surged up the stairs, his weapons in hand and he stopped in front of a drum of gasoline, kicking it down the stairs. It bowled over several Armacham soldiers in the process and Point Man squeezed several rounds into it, sending it bursting into flames. The heat and force of the drum bursting sent the man careening for a window.

He fell through the glass and stumbled across the fire escape, leaping down the length of it. Point Man could see the two armored soldiers waiting for him below. Though he still wore his mask, he knew for a fact that it wouldn't fool them.

VECTOR turned and spotted him immediately. "Commander SAVAGE, there he is!" he bellowed.

Point Man moved quickly, narrowly missing the S-HV Penetrator shells that nearly took his head off. The shells punctured through the bricks like they were nothing and Point Man resorted to sliding down the length of the ladder until he landed hard on the ground. The two soldiers moved toward him, seemingly faster than he would have expected for something so large. He immediately tensed, feeling the pressure rapidly starting to climb in his chest and slowly throughout his entire body.

His limbs crackled with energy and his entire body surged forward like a cat on an adrenaline burst. Time seemed to slow down all around him as he charged for the one who called himself VECTOR. He raised his gun and shoved it into the weakness at VECTOR's neck where the armor protected his head and shoulders. No sooner had he did, he suddenly contacted the ground hard and immediately, felt the burst of strength dissipate.

Point Man was stunned; it was a first time. It was almost as if he had passed through the soldier like he was a ghost. And no sooner had he attempted to rise again, VECTOR and SAVAGE were on him in an instant. He felt the weight of a knee pressed into his back and another one against his face, holding him to the ground as he felt his hands forced behind his back.

"Base, this is SAVAGE," the soldier announced, "Subject is secure."

"Copy that. Report back to Nest in one hour."

SAVAGE chuckled cruelly and grabbed the underside of Point Man's mask. "Did you hear that, freak?" he hissed, "That means we have an hour to get to know each other."

And with that, he tore the mask off, revealing Point Man's greasy features as well as a thick beard and slightly longer, neck - length black hair. Point Man glowered up at the two soldiers with defiance, awaiting the gruesome pain that he knew was going to come.

O

"_Wake up, Brother... They must die..._"

His head was throbbing.

Point Man felt his vision slowly coming into focus; he was lying on his side and appeared to be in some form of prison cell, though he couldn't make entire sense of where it was exactly. The floors were slippery and damp with water as well as his own blood. He couldn't move his hands; they had been strapped down with some kind of plastic handcuffs. The more he attempted to tug them free, the more the plastic dug into his wrists.

Point Man struggled to sit and a small river of blood trickled down his mouth. He took a moment to check his surroundings and noticed that there were several more people in the cells around him. Some of them appeared to be simple Auburn citizens. They were frightened and talking to themselves, obviously too far gone to be of any real use. Point Man could see that it appeared to be some form of basement level and quite possibly the Fairport Correctional Facility.

He looked to his left and noticed a brown-haired woman sitting in the cell across from him. She was wearing an Armacham employee jacket - the golden logo on her chest gleamed almost menacingly - and it was covered in splatters of blood as well as brown business pants; the only real oddity was the black hunting boots on her feet covered in a thick layer of mud. She appeared to be calm and composed and even smiled at him. She had the brightest pair of blue eyes he had ever seen before.

"Hi. You've been out for a while." she said, her voice just barely carrying an accent to it. British perhaps? He couldn't really tell right now. "You must have been very special to them for you to take such a beating."

Point Man frowned at her. She chuckled at his expression. "Sorry, I'm Crowe. Annette Crowe." she introduced, "But they just call me Crowe and only Crowe."

Point Man sensed no real threat from her and turned, scanning the entire terrain with his eyes. He was trying to find a way out of the cell; any imperfections or lack of security could help him. Crowe watched his movements with a sigh. "You can't get out, you know," she told him, "They tied your hands down for a reason."

He glared at her, in no real mood to hear this.

"I can help you," Crowe said, "If you get me out of here... They don't tie me down because they don't think of me as a threat." She chuckled dryly and he noticed a slight malicious gleam in her eyes. "Oh, what they don't know."

Then, she crawled over to the bars to get close to him and whispered. "I can get your hands loose," she whispered, "But you have to take me with you."

Point Man abruptly shook his head. That wasn't going to happen. Other people were just a liability to him. And it seemed that whoever was near him anyway, they ended up dead. Why should he burden himself with someone like her?

Crowe frowned at him and she looked slightly terrified to have her only means of escape leave this room. "I can be of use!" she insisted, "You have no idea what they have planned! I know their plans, codes and secrets! I can help you, I swear it!"

He thought about it for a moment before looking at her strangely, wondering just how she was going to get him out. She reached into her boot and removed a long, sharp object and held it up to him. It appeared to resemble a scalpel of some kind. She flashed him a smile, a particularly desperate one.

"I'll cut you loose, but you have to swear you'll get me out of here," she told him, "Your guns are over there." She gestured to a table just a few feet away and much to Point Man's surprise, a table left unguarded.

Crowe chuckled slightly at Point Man's silence. "Not a very talkative guy, are you?"

Point Man gave her a suspicious frown and waited there for a long time before he turned on his feet and presented his bound arms to her. Crowe carefully slid the scalpel beneath the plastic handcuff links and started to cut her way through the tough plastic. She cursed quietly at the resistance.

"Damn, bloody thing's tough as shit," she muttered.

There was a sound of a snap and Point Man immediately felt his arms freed. He rubbed his wrists and gave Crowe an appreciative nod before standing up and walking to the cell door and the Armacham electronic locking mechanism that had been placed there. He studied the lock briefly with a thoughtful expression before turning to her and he slowly held out his hand. Crowe knew what he wanted and shook her head.

"No. It's no good," she said, "I've already tried to get out that way."

Point Man thrust his hand out again, this time with more insistency than she saw the first time. Sighing, Crowe slid the scalpel underneath a small opening that separated their cells. Point Man took it immediately and began to use the tip of the sharp object to slide between the panels of the lock. After taking a moment of wiggling the scalpel through several wires and metal, Crowe's jaw dropped in shock when the door creaked open.

"Well, I suppose you've proven me wrong then!" she said.

Point Man walked to the table and grabbed his handguns. He checked them for ammunition and noticed that they hadn't stripped them of the magazine rounds. Well they must not have been all too bright then. He started to go, but Crowe's voice halted him.

"Hey! We had a deal!"

Point Man paused and turned, frowning back at her. She could see the hesitation in his eyes and it was immediately replaced with alarm when he heard the sound of an Armacham soldier approaching the cell block. He met Crowe's gaze briefly before nodding his head once.

The soldier walked into the cell block, oblivious to Point Man missing for the moment. He was wearing blue and gray body armor with a familiar insignia that looked somewhat the same as SAVAGE's; so he was obviously under his command. He gave Crowe a look; even though his face mask hid it, she knew perfectly well that he was suspicious about the sounds from the cell block. "What are you screaming about now, Crowe?" he snapped.

She shrugged her shoulders innocently. "Nothing," she said, "I'm having a marvelous time sitting here surrounded by...good people." She looked around at the nearly insane, catatonic people in the other cells with a snort.

The soldier sighed with boredom and approached her cell. "Don't lie to me," he told her, reaching into a sheath on his belt; he pulled out a knife with a slightly curved tip at the end, particularly used for skinning. It was called a Sharpfinger from what she remembered and it was a particularly deadly blade.

Crowe paled slightly. She looked over his shoulder briefly and noticed that Point Man was dropping down silently behind the soldier from the pipes above. She gave the ignorant soldier a weak smile and he tilted his head.

"You know, I can usually spot a dead man just by looking at him," she said, as Point Man raised a knife over the soldier's back. "I can even see how long it'll take for them to die."

The soldier laughed coldly; he obviously considered her speech to be a mere act of bravery rather than a true threat seeing since he failed to acknowledge Point Man behind him. "Really?" he sneered, "And how long will it take for me?"

Crowe smiled. "About 5 seconds."

The soldier was confused. He started to turn around and that's when Point Man buried his knife deep into the base of the man's neck, sending a spray of blood across the walls and floors of the cell. The soldier spasmed and struggled to reach back at him, but Point Man immediately closed his hand around his head, swiftly jerking it to one side to snap the bones in his neck, killing him instantly. Crowe winced at the sound and watched as the lifeless soldier's body slumped to the floor.

Point Man moved quickly and stabbed the same knife into the controls that locked Crowe's door. She immediately stepped out, relieved.

"Thanks," she told him, "But don't worry; I won't be a drag. I can fend for myself. I know how to swing a gun or two."

Point Man nodded his head briefly before he turned and slowly crept down the dark, stinking halls of the prison with Crowe tagging behind him just a few steps to give him room. She followed him as he walked into a room labeled "Security Monitor Room". Point Man moved quickly, scanning the security monitors. He could see several Armacham soldiers relaxing in the cafeteria that had been modified as a fortress. On other monitors, several soldiers were pacing back and forth, armed to the tooth with various weaponry.

"Well, this won't make leaving easy," Crowe replied, "We have to find another way out."

Point Man noticed another monitor that displayed the emergency stairway. It would probably lead up to the rooftops where they could escape. It was a risky idea and a long shot if he considered going that route. It would definitely be dangerous, but they had to take the chance.

"What's the plan then?" Crowe asked, skeptically; she made a gesture with her next words, "Just walk out in a nice straight line?"

Point Man grabbed a Vollmer Ultra92 Automatic Shotgun that was leaning against one of the monitors and thrust it sharply into Crowe's arms. She grunted from the force of his gesture and frowned at him in confusion.

"I know my way around Armacham weapons, but that doesn't scratch the fact that we're going to have difficulty leaving here," she pointed out, "They have the place surrounded."

Point Man gave her a scowl.

Crowe got the idea. She was expected to know every bit of the area to help him. "I know that the grunts sometimes get lazy in the kitchen. If we can make it through there, we can go out through the loading bay."

That was more than enough for him.

O

Point Man moved nearly faster than Crowe had expected; he cut his way through every soldier that stood in his path. He mowed them down as if they were practically useless toy soldiers with nothing to threaten him with. When they made their way into Cell Block C, something had changed in the air; Crowe couldn't quite describe what it was, but she felt a sudden heavy pressure bear down on her chest. It was like an incredible pain had washed over her though she could not see or touch it.

"Do you feel that?" she whispered, looking at Point Man.

Point Man didn't react save for that strong, impassive look on his face; instead he just walked through the darkened, empty rows of cells in silence with Crowe at his side. Point Man could feel her heart slowly starting to beat faster.

Within the empty cells, something flashed in a fraction of a few minutes; several writhing, faceless shapes that he remembered seeing during the infiltration of Armacham's Bio-Research Facility. They looked like naked, humanoid shapes with no identity, no purpose and no life. Their voices were like knives slicing through his chest; horrible sounds of misery and pain. Were they mere illusions? Not as far as he remembered.

"Help me..."

The voice came from his mother.

She was a fragment of his own memories; a long forgotten face that had disappeared in the darkness of his mind. She appeared to him in many forms that suited her own. Sometimes she stood as a blood - soaked nightmare, other times she was a small, frail little girl. He couldn't understand her. Sometimes he didn't like being near her. What could he feel for a thing that was a mere stranger to him? He didn't know her.

"_Help me, please..._"

The voice carried pain. Pain and fear. They were not different emotions compared to when he had seen her in the past in Armacham's Headquarters in Auburn. But there was something unique to the feelings. Something that he couldn't describe.

The illusion ended and the pressure in the air seemed to lift.

"Did you see that?" Crowe whispered, her voice haunted.

Point Man ignored her briefly as he quickly ducked behind a security barricade. He grabbed her by her jacket before she could protest and forced her down with him. They peered over the barricade, noticing that there appeared to be over twenty to thirty soldiers inside the cafeteria.

"There are quite a few of them, yes..." Crowe whispered, "What do we - WAIT!"

Point Man was already moving; he started firing off round after round at each head. Crowe attempted to keep pace with him as well by firing her shotgun at charging soldiers, shredding their bodies to bloody chunks. Point Man quickly grabbed a charging soldier who attempted to swing with his knife and he twisted the man's arm, drawing a shout of pain. Point Man immediately twisted the man's arm upwards in a fierce thrust, forcing his own knife into his chin.

Point Man used the body of the soldier as a shield when several more soldiers up on the catwalk attempted to mow him down with machine gun fire. Point Man grabbed the dead man's handgun holstered in his leg and used it to take out the remaining guards. Behind him, Crowe squeezed a round of her shotgun into a charging soldier, but resulted in merely taking his arm off in the process. He screamed like a wounded animal and surged for her, blood spurting from his shattered limb.

Crowe gave a shout and pressed her shotgun into his stomach as he fell directly on top of her, knocking her onto her back. She squeezed the trigger and the resulting blast ripped his body in two pieces as if it was made of paper mache'.

Point Man scanned the entire cafeteria for signs of anyone else. He looked at Crowe and she smiled weakly, nodding.

"It's clear." she said.

Then, a voice filled the air. A deep rumbling one. "Well, you've certainly killed a lot of my men, haven't you?"

Behind Crowe, the wall seemed to crackle and the air grew uncomfortably hot. She turned slowly in horror and disbelief as a shape stepped out from a blue ripple of light; another Armacham Commander that Point Man had seen in the Auburn streets. This one was also brandishing a Penetrator. There was a name scratched into his chest.

SPECTRE.

"You will suffer, abomination!" SPECTRE bellowed.

Crowe's eyes widened when he raised the weapon. "Oh damn..."

SPECTRE fired off several rounds and Point Man quickly took the defensive and ducked behind an overturned table. He grabbed Crowe by her ankle and yanked her with him, mere seconds before a high - powered nail could have embedded itself into her skull. Crowe stared at him in disbelief and horror. Point Man returned the look with a calm grimace and placed a finger to his lips, gesturing for her to keep quiet. Crowe nodded in accord.

Point Man suddenly darted from the overturned table, moving entirely too quick for either Crowe or SPECTRE to catch. Before she knew it, SPECTRE was doubling over with a sharp cry of pain and there were sparks flying out from his back. He snarled with fury and Point Man fired appeared at his side again, squeezing off several rounds from his handguns. The shots caused SPECTRE to double over with grunts of pain and Point Man seized the large knife in the Commander's belt, raising it high to stab the soldier. Crowe stood up and attempted to get a clear shot at him, but Point Man was in the way and she didn't want to hit him in the process.

"Damnit, I can't get a clear shot!" she cried.

Point Man looked back at her briefly before he disengaged himself from the soldier and at that same moment, Crowe fired. The blast from her shotgun struck the Commander dead in the face. He lurched back with a fierce shout, chunks of armor falling away from his face. He staggered back with a few moans to follow, but it was hard to tell whether or not they were of pain or anger. A hand went to SPECTER's face and he held it there for a few moments before snarling.

"You'll pay for that, worm!" he screamed.

When he looked up, Point Man and Crowe noticed that his face was now exposed from the shotgun blast. They could see a wide, blood - shot eye and raw, rippling muscle. Smoke billowed from his damaged armor. He surged toward them again with his weapon raised. Point Man's eyes narrowed and he lifted one arm in front of Crowe. Then, they looked to the left at the sight of a smoky red whisp that suddenly appeared from the shadows. It encircled SPECTRE and the two watched as he thrashed wildly, trying to fend off an unseen attacker through the red mist.

"No!" SPECTRE suddenly wailed, "Stay back! Stay back!"

Point Man and Crowe blinked, stunned as the mist seemed to seep into openings in SPECTRE's body armor and disappear completely. His body shuddered violently and convulsed before cracks appeared around his armor. Point Man and Crowe quickly ducked behind a table to avoid the spray of blood and body parts as the commander burst like a tomato. After a moment, the poked their heads up from behind the table.

Standing there was a being who appeared to be encased in flame. He was wearing a gray and red jacket and pants and had slicked black hair. There was also a bullet mark in between his eyes and the sight of him made Crowe's eyes widen. She looked over at Point Man and he stared at the being with a cold glare on his face.

"Hello brother," it spoke, smirking.

Crowe recognized the voice.

Paxton Fettel.


	2. Interval 01: Inception

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Consider your origins: you were not made that you might live as brutes, but so as to follow virtue and knowledge."
> 
> -Dante Alighieri

O

Fairport was empty.

Crowe was standing on what remained of a flipped - over pickup truck and scanned the world around her. Broken buildings, splintered wood and debris, paper that gently fluttered by in the wind. It was a depressing, almost unholy sight. She cupped her hand over her eyes to stare up into the rumbling, dark sky. A storm was coming, no doubt.

"We should find shelter soon!" she called over to Point Man.

He was scanning a discarded Armacham weapon's container and looked up briefly at the sky before nodding his head. He snapped his fingers and gestured to a convenience shop that had been completely obliterated by the blast. There was a gaping hole, but at least it would shield them.

Fettel was observing this from over top of a flag pole. He chuckled with amusement.

"Keeping pets now, are we brother?" he sneered.

Crowe looked straight up at him with a scowl. "Hey! I can hear you, you know!"

Fettel chuckled again with a mocking sneer to follow. He didn't respond to her words, but vanished in a swirl of red mist. Crowe joined Point Man inside the coffee shop and nearly jumped at the sound of another clap of thunder.

The rain came shortly after they were inside. It turned into a complete downpour and created an icy - cold breeze through the shop. Crowe was getting hungry and thought that she would look around for signs of food. She did find a few cans of fruit and baked beans that she offered to Point Man. He took it without question and used his knife to carve the can of beans open. He then created a small fire out of newspapers to cook them.

"It's sad what's happened to this place," she said, staring out into the pouring rain, "I feel partially responsible for it."

Point Man didn't argue or disagree with her.

Crowe almost found the silence to be unsettling. "Don't you ever say anything?" she asked.

Point Man gave her a dirty look before he reached beneath his sweater and pulled it down around his neck. Crowe frowned and tried to find what he was trying to show her. She leaned forward slightly and the frown disappeared. There was a pale, wicked scar that trailed along the length of Point Man's neck. A closer inspection revealed the damage to be more severe than she thought. It wasn't just a white scar, it was a scarred path of flesh that appeared to have been torn out completely and replaced.

"Oh shit, I didn't realize," she said, apologetically, "I'm sorry."

Point Man didn't seem affronted or showed signs of caring, so he shrugged it off.

Crowe frowned thoughtfully before she reached into her coat and felt around for a pen and piece of paper. She remembered having the small notepad there before and must have simply forgotten it in the long run.

"Maybe you could write down what you're thinking?" she suggested, "I imagine it would make talking a lot easier."

Point Man stared at her with a bemused look before shaking his head.

"Come on!" Crowe pressed, "Don't you think we need to have an understanding?"

Point Man hesitated briefly before sighing and taking the pen and paper with a bit of force. He gave her an irritated, expectant look to which she understood.

"Is that man your brother?" she asked, referring to Fettel.

Point Man scribbled something quick and held the paper up to her. His penmanship was horrible.

**Yes**.

She nodded her head and asked again. "Why is Armacham trying to capture you?"

Point Man paused, frowned and began to write something down before holding the paper up again.

**You don't know?**

Crowe shook her head helplessly at him and handed the notepad back. "No. In all honesty, no one's ever discussed anything with me," she told him, "I was captured after I tried to flee the facility up north of the city."

Point Man frowned at that and he seemed somewhat confused. He scribbled something on the notepad before offering it to her again.

**Why can you see my brother?**

Crowe looked surprised by the question and when she opened her mouth to speak, Point Man suddenly looked up with a strange alertness to his face. Crowe was somewhat unnerved by the look and started to stand, but Point Man held up an arm to her. She looked at him and he shook his head, removing the guns from his holsters. He brought a finger to his lips and stood up, peering through the rain storm.

Something was out there.

Crowe could hear the soft sounds of rocks being moved and shortly following were heavy, shallow breaths. She slowly reached for her shotgun and followed Point Man out into the rain. The street was empty, but the sound seemed to be getting closer. Point Man looked out toward a pile of overturned cars and something moved. Crowe looked up at Point Man uneasily, feeling a tight, unsettling sensation in the pit of her stomach.

"What's that?" she whispered.

Point Man held up a finger to her and shook his head, silently telling her to stay quiet. Shadows danced across the buildings once lightning lit up the sky; it took the shape of something jagged and enormous, but finally, it disappeared. Crowe relaxed when he did.

"What the hell was that?" she panted.

Point Man shook his head, but he looked somewhat concerned. Fettel appeared between them and stared into the night. The flames around his body didn't seem to be extinguished by the waters. Of course they wouldn't be. He was dead.

"Do you feel that, brother?" he whispered, "We're not alone here."

Crowe backed up several paces and her back bumped into a car's front bumper. It set off a loud, piercing alarm sound that literally traveled for what felt like miles. Crowe watched the sky in horror and looked over at Point Man, who stared at her, his eyes wide with disbelief and fury. She stared back with a sheepish, uneasy smile. After a long moment, the alarm eventually died and the silence that carried afterwards was almost maddening.

Finally, they heard another sound. Like footsteps.

Crowe, Point Man and Fettel looked around through the rain to try and pinpoint the source of the sound and noticed the sights of shapes appearing in the shadows. Point Man and Crowe backed up several paces as the shapes became known as humans. Some climbed up from underneath rubble, others from cracks in the buildings, some from the shadows and even more from alleys. They looked like their clothes and bodies were covered in filth, dried blood and even fresh blood from wounds that looked to be self - inflicted; carved symbols and markings into their own bodies.

"Who are they?" Crowe whispered to Point Man, "Are they the citizens of the city?"

Fettel appeared at her side. "They are. Or rather were people. Look into their eyes, brother. Look at the madness within."

The throng of people began to grow into a hissing, chattering mass that focused on the two living beings with insanity in their crooked, psychotic grins. Crowe could see that they were now brandishing weapons of every shape and size; sharp, deadly knives, blood - soaked baseball bats, crowbars with chunks of dried flesh still attached to the ends and other sharp objects. From her theory alone, Crowe could see that from the explosion, they had been reduced to primitive, wild monsters.

One of the men stood in front of the rest; he appeared to have half of the flesh along his jaw missing, exposing the raw muscle beneath and his teeth. His nose appeared to be missing, leaving only fluttering, torn flesh when he breathed.

"We should go," Crowe whispered to Point Man, "There's too many of them!"

Point Man furrowed his brow before he focused his attention to the back door of the coffee shop. He couldn't spare any ammunition with them should it be needed for a much bigger problem that he sensed would come his way soon. After a moment of consideration, he turned and grabbed Crowe's wrist, sprinting out through the door with the woman. There were fierce shouts and wicked laughter following behind him as the group pursued them.

Crowe led the charge as they raced through an alleyway; behind her, Point Man was shoving boxes and garbage cans over his shoulder in an attempt to slow them down. Crowe shoved her way through a pile of debris and spotted an open door just ahead that led into another building. She had a feeling that it couldn't possibly be welcoming, but anything was better than being ripped apart by the maniacs behind them.

"Hey! Hey! In here!" she called back to Point Man, beckoning with one arm.

Immediately, he followed her into the building. It was dark inside and he could hear the mass closing in. He shoved the door shut and backed away, giving Crowe a look that meant, "Don't you say a damn thing". If they so much as made a single sound, the crowds of the insane would no doubt find them. Crowe covered her mouth with one hand when the near thunderous sounds of footsteps faded into the distance. When she was sure that they were gone, she looked at Point Man.

"What happened to them?" she whispered.

Fettel appeared and responded for her. The flames around his body cast an eerie glow around them. "They had once been the people of this city. Average individuals like you or me. Mother's will has spread across this city, driving them to insanity."

"Mother?" Crowe asked, "Do you mean, Alma Wade?"

"Yes." Fettel responded. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips, but it was as if he felt no energy to do so. "You know her. You know OF her."

Point Man looked down at Crowe for some explanation and she quickly avoided his gaze, staring down the darkness of a hallway. It looked like several employee offices were lined up with phones and strangely enough, containers with Armacham labels on them. She frowned and pushed them open, noticing that they were filled with ammunition and a few handguns. Point Man switched his chest light on and stepped up, picking the weapons up out of the case.

"They were here," Crowe said, worriedly, "Not too long ago."

She opened another crate and luckily, there was a flashlight inside attached to an assault rifle. She picked up the weapon and switched the light on, lighting up the halls. She could see that there was blood everywhere and much to her unease, appeared to be fresh. Some of the blood was drawn into peculiar markings that looked like fragments of words and symbols. Another blood painting resembled a woman, twisted and gnarled in pain.

"What are these?" she wondered, "What are they painting?"

Fettel approached and studied the paintings with mild interest. "Perhaps these are not the mere ramblings of madmen, but a message of some kind." he suggested. He reached up and pointed at a small collection of symbols. They appeared to be kneeling before a holy figure who looked to be pregnant. "See the way that they are kneeling? It means that they worship her. They worship our Mother as a god."

Crowe frowned. "But why?"

"It is her influence," Fettel explained, "Mother was always capable of brainwashing the weak."

"So they're just mindless Cultists?" Crowe asked.

"That's one way of putting it."

Crowe arched her brows skeptically. "Wow. There's a surprise ... "

Then, a soft clattering sound drew their attention toward the end of the hall. There was a faint glowing coming from inside one of the offices. Point Man gestured for Crowe to stay behind him and he walked slowly toward the room. It was labeled HUMAN RESOURCES. The door was slightly cracked open, so Point Man pushed it open gently with the end of his weapon and peered inside. The office was in total disarray and there were actually working computers - no doubt Armacham's doing. There were also candles lit all over the office, placed on the floor as well as on desks. Sitting at the far end appeared to be an Armacham soldier.

Point Man slowly approached, his weapon at the ready. Those insane citizens were the enemies, but Armacham was just as bad. He still had memories of the hell that they had put him through even before all of this.

"Welcome ... " a voice whispered from the man sitting there.

Crowe and Point Man frowned as the chair turned. Finally, she staggered back with a gasp of horror and covered her mouth with one hand. "Oh my God!" she gasped.

The Armacham soldier's body was covered in blood and dirt as well as his helmet removed. His eyelids had been stitched completely shut and blood trickled down his cheeks, resembling horrible crimson tears. But he was smiling.

"She told me you would come here," he said, "She told me a lot of things."

Behind Crowe, something moved passed the shuttered window. She looked back and could see shadows dance over the walls through the cracks in the blinds as well as hear the faint sound of laughter that sounded like it had come from a woman. A shiver ran through her body at the sound. Point Man and Fettel must have sensed it too because they turned to stare at the dark window. A smile slowly crept up onto Fettel's face.

"She's watching us."

O

Crowe followed Point Man through the building. From the sight of the bulked objects and food, she could guess that they were in the Best Save Co. warehouse shop. The shelves were toppled over and appeared to be made into living spaces and eerie altars. Crowe split up with Point Man to scan the area for weapons and Armacham crates. Whatever was salvageable would be useful to them later on. Her comrade in arms seemed to agree with her logic.

Point Man was in another aisle when Crowe heard a whisper behind her. Crowe frowned and peered toward a meat cooler. There was a steady stream of fog coming from it, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. She resumed picking through the piles of dented cans and the whisper came again, only this time it was a lot louder and she could hear fragments of a sentence within; it was hissed in a command, yet also exhibited some form of curiosity.

"_Come here...Please. Help me. Won't you help me_?"

Crowe stood up and stared at the locker as Point Man approached. He tugged her shoulder to follow, but she didn't budge. He frowned at her, awaiting an explanation.

"I heard something," Crowe said, starting forward.

When she did, his grip on her arm tightened and he shook his head in warning.

"If it was one of those freaks, we'd have been attacked by now," Crowe told him, "Maybe it's someone who needs help."

Point Man's gaze intensified into a firm glare of warning; it was a look that basically said, "Don't fuck with me", but Crowe was certain that whoever called her needed help. Maybe those freaks had hurt someone and they were still alive. That was something, right?

"Just wait out here," Crowe suggested, "I'll be back out."

Point Man grunted and shook his head with irritation. Fettel just smiled at him, giving him a brief look before watching Crowe disappear into the locker.

"Let her go, brother," he said, "She needs to see this."

Point Man frowned at him before staring in the place that Crowe used to occupy, running many thoughts through his head.

Inside the meat freezer, Crowe shivered and held herself against the cold, keeping a firm grip on the gun in her hand. She could see her breath as it puffed little clouds in front of her as she looked around for signs of the caller.

"Hey!" she called, peering through towers of hanging pork and beef. "Are you okay in here? Hello?"

Through the fog and racks of meat, Crowe could see someone standing there. She squinted and struggled to make out the details of the person; it was a little girl in a red, tattered dress. Her feet were covered in blood and her long black hair shielded her eyes.

"Hello?" Crowe whispered, suddenly feeling a shudder run down her back.

"_Bird Lady..._"

Crowe looked around wildly for the second voice but she saw no one. She could hear the sounds of flapping and shadows danced wildly around her, distorting her vision. Crowe looked around frantically for a few moments more, struggling to block out the sounds of flapping with her hands. She gritted her teeth and moaned with terror, slowly dropping to her knees. The girl standing there made no attempt to move away.

"_You watched as they hurt me..._"

"_You did nothing..._"

"_I cried but you didn't answer..._"

"Stop ... " Crowe pleaded, "Please."

She suddenly looked up and the girl was now directly staring at her. Crowe could see the red flash of an eye staring at her. She was frozen as the little girl's hands slowly reached out to cup her face and pull her close until she was sure that her nose was touching hers.

"_Look, Doctor Crowe_."

Crowe looked up and the little girl's hair parted, revealing a horrible skeletal face that screamed demonically into her own. Her head was pierced with horrible flashing memories that ran through her mind in an explosion of pain and hatred. Crowe could literally see every waking memory of the tormented life that Alma Wade had suffered through; every moment she had ever experienced had been used to fuel that rage. Through it all, she could see two familiar little boys standing among the chaos and both looked absolutely frightened.

Finally, when she could take no more, Crowe slipped into unconsciousness.

She awoke moments later to Point Man's harsh slaps to her face. Wincing, she looked up and noticed that both Point Man and Fettel were standing over her; Fettel had a horrible grin on his face filled with mockery and Point Man looked mildly annoyed.

"She couldn't take all of that, could she, brother?" he sneered.

Crowe groaned and sat up, rubbing her forehead. She was shaken, disoriented by the visions and after a moment of looking around, she noticed that the apparition had gone. Point Man grabbed her wrist and forced her to her feet.

"I saw it ... " she finally said, haunted, "I saw everything. She showed me."

Fettel uttered a bark of laughter. "Heh. Better late than never."

Crowe glared at him briefly before she looked up at Point Man. "We'll have time to talk about it later, right now we have to get - "

A soft crashing sound suddenly resonated through the air. Crowe, Point Man and Fettel looked over and noticed that various Cultists were starting to pour their way through a window. Crowe groaned in frustration.

"Oh, cock it!" she protested.

O

Point Man and Crowe rushed out into the streets with the Cultists on their heels, screaming like rabid savages. Crowe looked around wildly for a way to break away from them, but Point Man remained calm and rigid through it as always.

Then, much to her relief, she spotted a Replica Armored Truck among the rubble. She grinned and hurried for it. Point Man followed and they quickly entered the vehicle. Crowe rushed at the controls and pressed the button that would shut the door behind them. It slowly roared shut and two Cultists attempted to jump through but Point Man lifted his assault rifle and fired several shots that took out most of their heads in a spray of gore and blood.

Fettel appeared again and tilted his head at the clanging sound. "Wonderful, woman," he snapped, "You've sealed our fate inside this wretched vehicle!"

Crowe scowled at him. "I didn't hear you spitting out any good ones out there!"

"Do you even know how to drive one of these things?" Fettel asked, arching his brow.

Crowe stopped a retort that she had and grunted uneasily. She was relieved to see that the keys were still inside of it. The only training that she ever had with these vehicles was on her free time at Armacham when she was working in the science labs. She knew how they worked and what controls were to be used, but she had never actually driven one before. But right now with the maniacs on their tails, she had to chance it.

"Not ... a full one hundred percent," she admitted, "So let's give it a shot and hope I don't kill us, shall we?" Then, she paused thoughtfully and gestured back to Point Man. "Well, those of us alive right now, anyway. You?" She looked at Fettel. "I don't believe ghosts can die a second time around."

"It it's all the same, I'd rather not put that theory to the test any time soon," Fettel agreed.

Crowe immediately went to work powering up the controls and she gripped the massive wheel in front of her. Peering through the binoculars that helped her see, she could spot several Cultists already starting to climb onto the vehicle.

"Bloody bastards!" she spat, "Get the hell off!"

She pressed on the pedals and the APC moved forward. Crowe winced at the horrible crunching sounds of human bone and meat, followed by a dying shriek. She continued watching the damaged road in front of her with disgust and mild pity.

"Stupid morons can't even move away from a moving vehicle," she muttered, "Their brains really have turned to mush."

The APC rocked wildly as it passed over debris, but it was built for this kind of terrain, so it would hold up fine unless they fell through a hole or into the ocean. Crowe definitely hoped for neither one to happen.

Just then, a voice broke the silence from the radio. She frowned and stared down at it.

"_This is First Lieutenant Keira Stokes of Dark Signal. Please, I have important information regarding what's been happening. Is anyone still alive out there? Please, respond_."

Crowe immediately grabbed the radio's microphone and brought it to her lips. "I read you loud and clear, Stokes."

There was a sigh of relief on the other end. "_Thank God! Who is this_?"

Crowe licked her lips thoughtfully before responding. "This is Annette Crowe, Armacham Scientist," she introduced. She noted the almost uneasy pause. "Relax, I'm not the enemy here. It's been real messy on my end too."

Finally, Stokes responded. "_Okay, we got introductions out of the way; what's the plan then_?" she asked, and her voice seemed quite uncertain, untrustworthy.

"Where is your current position?"

"_Wade Elementary School_."

Crowe's brow knotted and she glanced over at Point Man. "Did she just say Wade Elementary?"

He nodded.

Crowe winced and shook her head, returning her attention to the radio. "Keira, Wade Elementary is on the other side of the city," she told the woman, "With this rubble and weather, it might take me a little while to get to you."

"_Okay. But please, hurry as fast as you can ... I think there's something here with us_."

Crowe furrowed her brow at the nervousness in Stoke's voice. "Copy that. Keep your channel open. Broadcast every few minutes so we can keep in touch. We'll be there soon." she said, ending the conversation.

O

The night and the rain seemed to carry on forever. Point Man eventually switched up with Crowe so that she could take a moment to rest. They had to be close by now. Point Man was familiar with the layout of the city having lived in it for several long months.

Fettel appeared beside Crowe as she leaned against the wall in her seat. He folded his arms across his chest and crossed his legs, smiling down at her.

"He's a killer, you know," he told the woman, "Shot me down in cold blood. His own brother."

Crowe frowned at him. "I'm pretty sure you did something to deserve it."

Fettel smirked with a small laugh. "Ahh, so you would condone fratricide?"

"No!" Crowe snapped, glaring up at him, "Don't twist my words."

Fettel chuckled again. She looked tired by now, exhausted by what had happened today. He didn't blame her either; but they were so weak, the living. His only blessing for his own death was that he had survived beyond the grave into something stronger. He didn't enjoy how it had to happen though, but then again, it worked out in his favor.

The APC pushed its way through the gate of Wade Elementary school and stopped in front of the main entrance. After a moment, Point Man and Crowe stepped out with their weapons close in hand. They looked around for signs of any enemy forces before Point Man gestured for her to follow him inside. There were bodies of fallen Armacham soldiers lying everywhere as well as what remained of the staff of the underground facility that she knew was here. They must have tried to escape and were gunned down in the process.

Fettel chuckled dryly. "Pitiful fools," he said, "Their attempt to clean up their mess doesn't seem to be going very well."

They walked through the rubble and debris before passing through the cafeteria. The lightning that flashed through the sky cast eerie shadows over the damage and the deceased. Crowe furrowed her brow and looked around for signs of danger. There was a little farm scene displayed on the stage facing the cafeteria. The edges of the cutouts were slightly charred, the trees covered in bullet holes, the donkey's head had even been blown off. It was a very unsettling sight for her.

She glanced up toward the glass roof. Rain was pouring in through the shattered glass. When lightning ripped through the sky again, the shadow of a spasming humanoid shape danced across the wall. Crowe gasped in horror and backed up, stumbling into Point Man's rigid form. He frowned down at her.

"Did you see that?" she whispered.

Point Man looked up and the shuddering shadow was gone. Though it had disappeared, he definitely sensed a change in temperature; a frigid cold that felt familiar when he had attacked Armacham Headquarters. Though this feeling was slightly different; it carried with it an overwhelming sense of hatred and bitterness.

"What was that thing?" Crowe asked.

Fettel answered for her and he watched the rooftops with a look of intense focus. "A fragment of Mother's mind," he replied, "Let us hope that we will not have to confront it anytime soon."

Just then, a collection of voices filled the air, snippets of conversation through a radio lying beside a fallen Armacham soldier. Point Man bent down and picked the hand held up. They didn't transmit very far, so the conversation going on meant that there were more soldiers around.

"_Base, this is Crew Leader of ALPHA Team. We have a downed chopper 12 miles west - south west of base with three aboard. I repeat..._"

And then, SAVAGE's voice emerged through the link. "_Affirmative. Hold your positions and we'll rendezvous shortly_."

Crowe grunted warily. "That bastard's going to be here soon!"

Point Man switched the radio to a few alternate channels. Then, the sound of Stokes' voice filled the air. Crowe took the radio from him and immediately tuned in so that she could hear the other woman's voice better.

"Keira?" she said, "Keira, can you hear me?"

Stokes sounded relieved. "_Yeah. Read you loud and clear_!"

"We're here at the school," Crowe told her, "Can you tell us where you're hiding?"

When Stokes started to answer, the radio suddenly filtered loud, interfering static. Crowe angrily tapped the radio and could barely make out the words, "Nurse's Office" through the interference. "Shit. Keira, can you hear me? Keira!"

Then, there were voices as well as beams of flashlights that shone around the corner of another hallway. The voices were coming from various Armacham soldiers making their way into the cafeteria, toward their position.

"Shit, we got to talk to the heads about this," one of the soldiers muttered, "We're getting screwed in the ass for doing this shit."

"Do you want to be the one to tell SAVAGE that we missed sight of the project again?" another soldier pointed out. "He wants us to find that F.E.A.R. operative and bring him in alive. If we screw it up one more time, he's gonna have our asses for it."

Behind the kitchen counter, Point Man and Crowe were hiding from the beams of the flashlights. Crowe looked at him and he gripped a grenade tightly in hand. She gave him a disbelieving look and he pulled the pin, rolling it out into the cafeteria toward the group of soldiers. They immediately stopped talking long enough to look down at the beeping grenade.

"Oh shit." one of the soldiers groaned.

"GET DOWN!" came a shout from another.

The soldiers scattered, just as the grenade exploded, sending a wicked spray of shrapnel flying in every direction. Crowe covered her ears and ducked from the blast as it literally jarred her off of her feet and onto her stomach. Bits of wood rained down onto her and Point Man was already up from his hiding spot, his weapons locked and loaded. He began unleashing a barrage of shellfire into the smoke and the recovering soldiers attempted to fire back.

Crowe poked her head up from the ruined counter-top and began loading her shotgun with ammunition that she had stuffed into her coat. Her movements were jerky and frantic and she failed to notice a soldier behind her. He aimed his handgun at her head and just as he was about to squeeze the trigger, his forehead exploded in a burst of blood and he collapsed behind her. Crowe looked back in shock and then toward Point Man who stood calmly in the smoke, his weapon barrel smoking.

"Thanks for the save!" she called.

Point Man acknowledged with a brief nod before he looked down toward a bleeding soldier. The man was still alive, despite the horrible gushing stumps where his legs used to be. He laughed wickedly, defiant to the end.

"We didn't need guns to kill your bitch of a mother!" he snarled, "And we won't need them when we get our hands on her again!"

Crowe approached and scowled down at the dying man. "Where is Alma Wade?" she demanded.

The soldier snickered. "Wouldn't you like to know?" 

Point Man and Crowe scowled darkly down at him, but Fettel stepped up with a small chuckle. "Allow me, you two," he said, "I'll get what I need out of this one."

Before they could even question his motives, Fettel disappeared into the man's body with a sick hissing sound. Crowe and Point Man watched as the man's body spasmed and twitched in painful manners. His eyes widened and he gasped and spit, trickles of saliva running down his chin. After a moment of seizuring all over the floor, the look in his eyes changed and was replaced with Fettel's dark, intense stare. The flames that danced around his body now appeared around the man.

He was possessed.

Crowe and Point Man watched as Fettel sighed through the man's lips. "This one had his orders," he told them, "To reach Mother and to take control. They believed that the Paragon Facility would have a way to reach her."

Crowe frowned. "Paragon? I thought that facility was closed years ago."

"No," Fettel replied, "It's here beneath the school. It was accessed by a Michael Beckett of Dark Signal squad. They were aware of the transmission that woman sent out. They pinpointed her location and thought that she might know something."

Finally, Fettel heaved a sigh. "Ahh, this one's trying to fight me. Oh well, it's not like he would live through it anyway."

Crowe and Point Man stepped back as the man's body seemed to shudder before them. His flesh began to swell at an unnatural size before it burst, sending blood and flesh flying through the air. Crowe had to shield her face from it, but Point Man stood like a rigid statue as he was sprayed with blood. He blinked a few times and scowled at his ghostly brother who chuckled with macabre amusement. He shook his head.

"Come now," he sneered, "It's not the first time that you've had blood on your hands."

They continued through the school, passing an enormous hole that had once been a classroom. Outside, a helicopter was passing overhead through the storm and landed on a rooftop. It carried several Armacham soldiers as well as the familiar forms of VECTOR and SAVAGE. SAVAGE lifted his hand and gestured to the pilot.

"CUT IT! CUT IT HERE!" he commanded, over the whirring of the rotor blades.

There were several more helicopters landing in the school playground and rooftops and their motors eventually died down. Crowe whispered sidelong to Point Man and Fettel, who watched the many soldiers slowly advance into the school.

"Shit. These bastards are going to find us!" she whispered, "We have to find Keira and get out of here, fast!"

SAVAGE gestured to the school with two fingers. "All of you, spread out into groups!" he commanded, "All pilots, take your minis and stay on sight. Make sure that the target does not escape. Keep all eyes on every escape route. I want him ALIVE."

The way he hissed out those words suggested that he had much more in store for Point Man that would not end gently should he find the man again. Point Man gestured with a flick of his head for Crowe to follow and she did. They avoided the large group of soldiers standing guard outside and even more, avoided the massive throng slowly piling into the school. It was best to prevent a waste of ammunition than attack them all at once.

The conversation between the Armacham soldiers filtered through Point Man's radio.

"_Commander. SAVAGE, this is Crew Leader of team ALPHA. What is your E.T.A._?"

SAVAGE's cold voice filtered through. "_Crew Leader, we have a Medevac en route toward your position. Hold your ground until we reach you. Over_."

Another soldier piped up after a moment. "_Visibility drops dead at 40 feet. If they're deeper than that..._"

VECTOR's voice hissed. "_Nobody's crawling out of that crash. Nobody_."

Crowe and Point Man were somewhat curious by what they were talking about though Crowe more than anything. As they worked their way through the library, she could see a strange, hunched, nearly invisible corpse - like creature with glowing red eyes and sharp claws standing beside the bathroom door ahead through the double doors of the library. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes, trying to pretend that it wasn't there.

Point Man acted calm, though she could tell that he sensed it too as he dug his way through the corpses of the fallen soldiers, grabbing for ammunition and any grenades that they still had attached to their bodies. Crowe watched as Fettel quietly observed his surroundings. He lightly touched a patch of burned flesh on the wall and knotted his brow thoughtfully. He observed the corpses and their condition before he looked back at Crowe and Point Man.

"Hmm, these are not natural burns," he said, "Something was here. It killed them quickly. They barely saw it coming."

Crowe studied the piles of empty shell casings littered all over the floor.

"They got off several rounds," she mused, "But they didn't hit it." She paused and suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Through the shadows, she could see something moving silently - or at the very least, she THOUGHT that she saw something. "I don't like it here. We need to move."

There was a grim, unsettling pause for a moment and then, a crackle over Point Man's radio.

"_Commander SAVAGE, this is ALPHA Leader. I've got a small problem here. Do you copy_?"

SAVAGE's voice was calm. "_I copy. What is your situation_?"

While they conversation was going on, Crowe looked up and noticed a strange message scrawled in blood on the back of the double doors that she hadn't noticed before when they had stepped inside. It read in bright red blood:

"STAY AWAY FROM THE DARK."

O

Crowe wasn't sure what that meant until she heard a scream.

It was a human scream.

Then, they saw it. Through the shadows, a shape seemed to "swim" about through the darkness. Crowe could see its every feature when Point Man shined his flashlight onto it. It shrieked and disappeared but appeared once more in the shadows. It had a small, slender humanoid body with large, dangerous claws and pus - filled wounds all over its gray, blistered flesh. When it looked at them again, she could see that it had tiny red eyes and sharp, deadly teeth. It had no nose, but two flring holes where a nose should have been.

It shrieked and dove at them. Crowe squeezed several rounds off of her shotgun and it disappeared in a burst of smoke and ash. At that point, Crowe could see an image flash through her head; she saw Wade Elementary as it had once been before the chaos and the insanity of today. It was filled with hundreds of children who were laughing, pointing and cruelly shoving at a little girl in a red dress who attempted to hide from them in the shadows.

"Alma ... " Crowe whispered.

Point Man was already moving ahead and she quickly rushed to follow him. Similar shapes of the creatures began surging toward them and his gait immediately hastened; he squeezed several rounds into them before they could strike. Crowe shot off several rounds as well.

"What are they?" Crowe asked, once they stopped in front of the Nurse's office.

Fettel shook his head. "Mother hated them. They had families who loved them, who worried for them. They mocked and ridiculed her for having nothing an no one. So she took from those fools." he explained, "They forced her into the dark, to hide among the shadows; so forever cursed in that fate they will remain."

Point Man stepped into the office and Crowe followed. Suddenly, he grabbed her by the arm to stop her moments before she plummeted to her death. Crowe yelped out and it echoed all around them. She looked down and noticed that there was no longer a floor to the office and it dropped clear down to another level below. It appeared to be that the floor itself was an elevator of some kind that led to the Paragon facility below.

"Shit," Crowe whispered, "That could have been a messy ending. How do we get down there?"

Point Man glanced up toward a small wall console. Frowning, he reached over to it and pressed a few keys onto it. After a few brief moments, the whirring sound of the elevator caused them to stare down as the machine slowly started up toward them. Crowe looked over at Fettel, who drifted silently beside her. He was floating of course.

"What do you think we'll find down there?" she asked.

Fettel glanced briefly back toward the dark hallways, listening to the desperate screams of the apparitions.

"Nightmares." he answered.


	3. Interval 02: Decay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "There is no such thing as death. In nature nothing dies. From each sad remnant of decay, some forms of life arise
> 
> so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it."
> 
> -Charles Mackay

O

Fettel's voice filled the air again as they descended into the Paragon Facility.

"There are so many deserving of retribution and so little time ... " he told his brother, "Do not feel pity for them. They've brought it on themselves." He took a deep inhale. "They all deserve to die for what they've done. They will not be missed."

Once the elevator finally stopped, Point Man and Crowe stepped out to observe their surroundings - a laboratory filled with several computers and a single large television screen; the monitors were useless to them and filled with bullet holes. The floor was practically littered with empty shells and shrapnel. Most of the electricity wasn't working in some areas and a few lights were flickering on and off overhead.

Crowe and Point Man checked around the lab for signs of life or anything that might be of use to them. Point Man stepped up some stairs and checked a few counter tops; there were several open cans of beans, vegetables and other foods. It appeared that someone had made their home here in the facility, though he couldn't possibly understand why. While he scanned the counters, Crowe went through some papers and Intel documents. She picked one up and noticed that it was a recorded list of various students and staff of the school overhead. The chilling thing about it was that every name was labeled as PURGED.

"We must hurry," Fettel's voice interrupted, "Let's find that woman and get moving. She is close."

Point Man nodded briefly, though he showed little interest in Fettel's anxiousness. He looked toward Crowe who studied the steel doors. She clicked with dismay and looked back at the two.

"The system's shut down through here," she told them, "We'll have to contact Keira and see how she - "

Crowe was cut off as Point Man unleashed a barrage of shellfire on the door's controls. She recoiled and narrowly missed the bullets as they shredded the wiring and metal panels. After a moment, the door roared open and she glared up at him.

"Are you out of your mind?" she snapped, "You could have killed me!"

Fettel smirked at her. "Oh no, dear," he said, "He would wait until you were unarmed and helpless as I was."

He laughed at Point Man's particularly dark look as Crowe disappeared into the following corridor. It was unbearably quiet and empty, but they remained on high alert and refused to let their guard's down for a single moment. They passed Observation room 400 where Crowe paused and frowned, peering through the plexiglass. Several translucent figures of doctors appeared inside the room, moving about and talking normally.

"_Vitals are unusually high today_," a male doctor mused.

"_Oh yes. She's nervous. She's always nervous_." another male doctor added.

The images disappeared into ashes that fluttered into the air and vanished. Crowe's brow knotted at the strange sight and she looked briefly up at Point Man. He didn't acknowledge the sight; perhaps he didn't see what she saw.

Crowe could hear the whispers of a voice in her head again, the same from Alma.

"_Do you want to hurt me_?"

Crowe stopped and peered down an adjacent corridor. She could see Alma standing there, haggard and bone white. Her body was horribly thin and emaciated, the bones jutting out in a sickening manner. Her long black hair barely covered her breasts.

"No. I don't." Crowe said, softly.

She felt a curious whisper in her voice that was unintelligible at first, and then, a surge of uncertainty and rage. It was a searing, sharp pain that ripped through her brain like a knife. Crowe staggered back from the image and Point Man stood strong. Alma tilted her head slightly to one side, studying them with that eyeless look. It did nothing to disturb Point Man - he had seen the sight one too many times already - but it frightened Crowe a bit. Alma's words came out cryptic and bitter.

"_You're lying_."

Alma turned around slowly and disappeared - or rather blinked out of existence in a small puff of ash. Point Man gestured for Crowe to continue and she numbly moved forward, uneasy and shaken by the sight. She gestured for Point Man's radio and he handed it over.

"Keira?" she said, into the radio, "Keira, do you read me?"

After a moment of waiting, Stoke's voice filled the radio.

"_I read_!"

"We're inside the Paragon Facility now. Where the hell are you?" Crowe snapped.

"_I'm inside the facility's central security room_," Stokes explained, "_I can see you right now on the computers_."

At that, Crowe and Point Man looked around until he noticed the camera positioned within a corner. There was a red light blinking somewhat, letting them know that the camera still had power and that they were being watched. Crowe tilted her head and brought the radio to her lips again.

"Is the power still running through all of the cameras?" she asked.

"_No_." Stokes replied, "_There are a few still running on some of the floors, but others were damaged in the attacks_." She was quiet for a brief moment. "_So who's that guy standing beside you anyway_?"

"He's simply a fellow comrade right now," Crowe explained, "I think he wants to get to the bottom of this mess the same as you and I do."

"_Okay_." Stokes replied, "_I'll guide you to our location and you can..._"

Crowe tilted her head with a small frown at Stoke's silence. "Keira? Keira, what's the matter?" she asked.

Stoke's voice came out then, haunted. "_Oh God..._" she whispered.

"What's wrong?" Crowe was getting concerned now.

"_I just ... I just saw something walk passed you_."

Crowe's face paled. She and Point Man looked over their shoulders but saw nothing there.

O

The two headed deeper into the facility and Crowe observed every numbered room and detail to see if she could find the security room. They passed through several room and blood - soaked offices without a single glimpse of them. Crowe could still hear voices all around her and she froze when they stopped in front of the Abomination pens. She could see a translucent image of herself standing in front of one of the doors with an image of Terry Halford.

"_It's wrong_," the image of Crowe said, softly, "_It's not right_."

"_You can't question him and you know it_." Terry replied, "_You'll be fucked if you do_."

The images vanished into ash once more.

Fettel chuckled quietly and appeared behind Crowe. Though he was dead, she could still feel him standing there. "Mother wants you to remember something, doctor," he told the woman, "You must be connected somehow."

Crowe felt a sense of dizziness. "I don't know really how I can be connected to her. I've never met Alma Wade in person. I just knew about her." she replied

"No matter," Fettel said, with a small hint of a smile, "We'll learn soon enough, won't we, brother?"

Point Man actually nodded in agreement and gave Crowe a hard look. Obviously, he wanted to know what connected Crowe to the Wade family if there was any at all. He never met Crowe up until now, so anything that his mother presented would be evidence otherwise.

"Look, let's just try and focus on finding Keira so we can get out of here?" Crowe snapped, "This place makes me feel sick."

They pressed on without argument.

It was good that Keira's voice piped up from the radio, otherwise the silence would have been too much.

"_I see you on the monitors now_," she said, "_Take a right down the next hallway and I'll open the door for you_."

Crowe acknowledged with a small nod, even though it was silly to do so. "Okay." She paused and then added with disdain. "Try not to shoot us."

They entered the next hallway and turned right, moving passed several containers and fried skeleton remains. Crowe stepped on a few and the bones fell apart into a pile of ash. She grimaced at the horrible sound before stopping at the door labeled SECURITY. Before she knocked, it roared open and the dirty, frightened face of Keira Stokes stood there, her hand gripping a Combat Shotgun. She peered over the shoulder of the woman before gesturing her inside.

"Quick! Get in!" she whispered.

Crowe and Point Man funneled into the security room and took a moment to notice that it was filled with cans of food, bottles of alcohol and water as well as cases of ammunition and weapons. There was also a man sitting at a chair watching the monitors. He looked Hispanic in origin and he was also quite dirty as well. He gave Crowe a brief wave and a smile before standing up. He was cradling an Assault Rifle over his shoulder.

"Hey. Welcome to the hole! You can call me Manny." he told her, "We got everything you need ... " Then, he added rather awkwardly. "Well, except soap. That's a bit scarce."

Stokes took care in bolting the door before turning. "Were you followed?" she asked.

Crowe shook her head. She thought that it was better not to mention the ghosts and creatures. "No." she said. She paused and studied the two; they were obviously soldiers. "Are you two the only ones here?"

Manny rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. "Eh, not exactly."

Point Man and Crowe looked over and spotted none other than Genevieve Aristide. The face of Armacham's CEO was a small memory in Crowe's eyes; she had seen and associated with Genevieve a few time in her life and never really liked her. They sometimes quarreled about the morality behind the test subjects and experiments on the unfortunate victims of the facilities. Crowe would always attempt to avoid her at any cost.

"Ah, doctor Crowe," Genevieve said, with much hesitation, "You're still alive after all. I thought for sure that these two soldiers were lying."

Crowe furrowed her brow. "I thought you were dead a long time ago."

Manny piped up. "We almost were," he explained, "Replica forces moved in and those bastards tried to gun us own, but we got away. Believe it or not, the bitch here got us out of some real tough spots. We've been hiding here ever since."

Stokes could still relive that memory when she was dragged out of the Amplifier by SAVAGE and his troops. They had tended to the wound that was the result of Genevieve's weapon and had planned on coming back for Beckett later. When Genevieve learned that they were going to die, she had helped them escape. Stokes still couldn't believe it then, but she knew the CEO had no interest in their lives, but the life of herself.

Crowe furrowed her brow suspiciously at Genevieve. "Why'd you help them?" she asked.

"Because I want results, that's why," Genevieve told her, hard, "I want to get this mess under control before we have a global issue on our hands. I don't really have many other options on hand right now."

"Global issue?" Crowe asked, concerned now, "What global issue?"

Genevieve gestured for her to follow and reluctantly, Crowe did. She led the woman to a table where there had been many papers, documents and maps open up. Several spots of the map were circled in red as well as labeled with certain events that had happened. Crowe also noticed that they had marked specific areas where Armacham troops had landed and even disappeared. It seemed that the three were keeping track of recent events.

"Alma's powers have spiraled out of control," Genevieve told them, "You've seen it. From what we've witnessed, it's only going to get worse."

"So what do you suggest?" Crowe asked.

Genevieve smiled and turned to the others. "Armacham has been holding Sergeant Beckett in custody. I know of his location." she told them all, "Alma's still at Still Island and not a single soul can get there. Anything that does ends up dead. We could use Beckett to get us inside."

"As bait?" Stokes exclaimed, "Have you lost your mind? He's already been through enough!"

Genevieve frowned at her angrily, frustrated with Stokes' lack of compliance. "Hasn't it ever occurred to you just yet that there's a little bit more to this than just one person?" she snapped. "This is about the fate of Armacham and my - "

Crowe couldn't believe her ears. "I can't believe you!" she cried, "You're STILL so worried about your precious company after all of this?"

Genevieve rolled her eyes. "Crowe, don't give me another one of your goddamn bullshit speeches," she said, lowly, "We have bigger issues to worry about."

"Like killing that bitch!" Stokes said.

Crowe looked stunned. "Kill her?"

Genevieve glared at Stokes and held up a hand. "That wasn't what we agreed to, soldier!" she snapped at her in a warning voice, "You said you'd take a moment to hear my side if I let you and your little potty - mouth friend over here out!"

"And I did! But I never said anything about going with you on it!" Stokes told her.

Crowe held up two hands. "Why does Alma have to die?" she asked, quietly.

The two women and Manny stared at her like she had just fallen off of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Stokes exclaimed, "She did all of this! She's a danger to everyone and anything that gets her pissed off!"

Manny rolled his eyes. "Great. We got us the bearded hobo," He gestured to Point Man. "And a sympathizer." And he flirted his head toward Crowe. "Christ, why the fuck didn't you check with them a little more before you dragged them here?"

Stokes sighed at him. "They're all we have, Manny."

Point Man stared daggers at Genevieve. The woman met his gaze with a smile. "It's good to see you again, Prototype One." she told him. "You've certainly given us a run for our money. Nice to see you're still alive."

Point Man stared at her coldly for a long time before he tapped Crowe's shoulder once. She looked at him questionably and he gestured toward the table with a flirt of his head. She looked in the direction that he indicated and noticed a few folders open to pages of Harbinger candidates. While Genevieve and Stokes started arguing again, Crowe paged through the papers with a frown. She could see paper clipped photos of Manny, Stokes. Point Man hovered over her as did Fettel.

"Hmm ... Project Harbinger." Fettel mused, "An attempt to recreate what they couldn't succeed with myself and brother. There may be something important here."

Crowe nodded.

When Genevieve and Stokes had ceased their argument, the CEO of Armacham turned and noticed Crowe's search. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

Crowe turned and clutched a folder in her hand. It had her name written on the flap. "What is this?" she asked, hard, "My personal file?"

"SAVAGE had it among many others," Genevieve explained, though she looked doubtful, "Your scores interested him. Thought not so much as Beckett's."

"My scores?"

Genevieve arched a brow. "You know what scores I'm talking about."

Stokes held up a hand. "Look. Either way, we need to get out of here," she told them; her eyes landed on Crowe, "Did you secure a way out of here?"

Crowe nodded and closed the folder. She would look at it later. "Yes. We have an APC ready to go." she said. She paused uneasily. "There's just ... one small problem."

O

Point Man led the group through the school and they ducked from the sights of Armacham soldiers moving passed them down the halls. Stokes frowned at Point Man and shook her head at his silent gestures.

"Don't you say anything?" she snapped.

"Piss of," Crowe barked right back, "He can't talk. He's a goddamn mute. Now can you please focus?"

"Fine. Where's the APC?" Stokes demanded.

Crowe crept silently across the hall and gestured out through a crack in the windows. "See it over there?" she whispered, "We can make it if we run, but there's too many of them around. SAVAGE is still looking for him and they have every exit blocked off," She gestured briefly to Point Man. "We can't chance it. We have to sneak around."

Manny scoffed. "Jesus Christ. They've got us boxed in."

Point Man looked up and gestured with two fingers for them to follow. He didn't wait and moved forward. Crowe sighed.

"There he goes again!" she muttered.

Fettel chuckled dryly. "Brother doesn't know the meaning of restraint."

As they moved, Point Man's radio filtered the conversations of the Armacham soldiers.

"_Advancing_."

"_Affirmative_."

There was mostly static on the other end, but then, VECTOR's voice picked up through the connection. "_Commander SAVAGE, this is VECTOR, we may have a situation_." came the call from the other Commander.

"_I copy. What is your situation_?" SAVAGE asked.

"_I've discovered ALPHA team and their crew leader_," VECTOR said, "_North North West of your position. They're dead_."

SAVAGE sounded surprised. "_What? What happened out there_?"

"_I don't know_," VECTOR responded, "_But I will -_ "

Suddenly, the sound of gunfire rang out from the turrets positioned at the helicopters, cutting off VECTOR's conversation with the other commander before he could finish. Everyone ducked down instinctively and they listened to the sounds through the radio, stunned by the sudden tormented screams and shouts. It sounded like chaos out there; the soldiers almost sounded like they were being torn apart.

"_It's too fucking fast! I can't see - AAAHHHHH!_"

"_I CAN'T SEE HIM! WHAT IS THAT_?"

"_Covering fire_!"

"_Cover me_!"

"_Die, motherfucker_!"

"_No! NO! STAY AWAY! GET AWAY FROM ME_!"

"_SAVAGE! It's wiped out the whole squad! WE NEED BACKU - ARGGGGG!_"

Stokes looked horrified and then there was abrupt silence. She looked at Point Man and Crowe and they stared back, just as surprised as she was. Manny quickly crossed himself before he stood up and lifted his Assault Rifle down the direction of the hall.

"We gotta move, you guys!" he said, "Whatever's out there, it's gonna find us!"

They moved forward out into the school playground and stepped into a scene of gore and massacre. There were many soldiers strewn across the playground, most of their body parts had been thrown about wildly. There were pools of blood dripping from dangling corpses hanging over the edges of the buildings, some over the swing sets and others lying in their own guts. A few were still alive, but delirious from the pain.

"Oh God," Crowe whispered, "What the hell happened?"

Point Man approached one of the soldiers and noticed that his lower torso was missing. He was sputtering blood, near death. He whispered his final dying words.

"It's ... hell ... " he groaned, before going still.

Manny looked over his shoulder warily and spotted a shape move over the rooftops. He squinted and furrowed his brow, confused by the strange, jagged shape.

"Uh, hey lieutenant?" he said, nudging Stokes warily, "Something's up there."

Just then, Crowe, Fettel and Point Man could make out the eerie sound of unintelligible child - voice whispering accompanied by a horrifying death rattle. It was throaty and sick, as if someone was being choked.

"What was it?" Stokes demanded, looking at Manny.

He made several gestures. "I don't know, but it looked a lot like a fucking - "

A sharp thud from one of the doors of the school caused them all to look back toward a set of double doors that led toward the gym. The thuds continued, denting the doors. Genevieve started to pant warily in fright. She looked up at the others.

"We should go now!" she spat, "NOW!"

They turned and ran toward the APC just a few yards away and the sound of something snapping filled the air, like metal buckling. No one looked back at the sounds of something pursuing them as they sprinted into the vehicle. Genevieve was behind them all, running as fast as her legs could carry her. Crowe looked back in shock and horror. She reached out one hand and ignored Manny as he dove for the driver's seat and started up the vehicle. She waved frantically to the woman.

"Genevieve! Hurry!" she shouted.

Genevieve dove for the APC just as Manny started pulling away. Crowe grabbed her arms and started to pull her inside. Suddenly, there was an ear - splitting death rattling sound and she was suddenly yanked back toward the opening. A fierce scream pulled out from her and Stokes made a mad dash to help Crowe. Genevieve held onto a handlebar and wailed in agony.

"IT'S GOT ME!" she shrieked, "Something's got my leg!"

Manny looked back desperately. "What the fuck is going on back there?" he cried, "We've got a cling on!"

Fettel was sitting calmly in a chair, smiling with his eyes closed as if he knew what was happening. Point Man watched him with a hard glare before he jumped to his feet and moved to help the two women who desperately clung to Genevieve's arms to try and pull her back inside. The snarling, inhuman sounds and their source could not be seen because whatever it was was attached to the side of the APC, trying to take the CEO out with it. Stokes pressed her foot into the edge of the door and the seats to try and keep herself and Crowe from being yanked out as well.

"What the fuck is that?" Stokes screamed.

"Don't let me go!" Genevieve begged, tears stinging her eyes, "Don't let me go, please!"

Crowe nodded fiercely. "I won't! I won't!"

Genevieve wailed in agony and blood spurted from her mouth and her wails died into choked gurgles. There was a sick ripping sound, like cloth and flesh being torn. Point Man reacted with a slight widening of his eyes. Crowe could catch a glimpse of something black with red eyes. It was like a shadow save for shining white teeth that scissored through the flesh of the Armacham CEO as if it were paper. For a moment, those fiery red eyes pierced through her and she couldn't move.

Then, something snapped and Aristide was gone.

O

The APC continued through the city and Stokes was frantic.

"Oh God, she was the only one who knew where Beckett was!" Stokes panted, "Now what do we do?"

Crowe was rubbing her face with one hand. "We have to keep moving." she said, her voice quiet and calm, "We'll figure something out. He couldn't have gone too far from Still Island. Not with the limited resources of the soldiers."

Manny scoffed in disgust. "Yeah, well, they're not the only ones," he told them, "We need to find some place to get supplies and duck because I know for a fact that there'll be more of those fucking things close."

Stokes frowned. "How do you know?" she asked.

"Was there ever just one?" Manny snapped.

"Okay, where are we now?" Crowe asked.

Manny stopped the APC and turned to look back at them. "We're in front of the mall," he told her, "We could hurry inside and see what we can find. I haven't picked up any radio transmissions from Armacham troops, so we should be safe here."

Everyone poured out of the APC and Manny stayed behind. Crowe looked up at the image of the mall. What had once been a proud, shining building was tattered and torn, obliterated by the blast that had taken out most of the city.

"I'll keep it hot, lieutenant," he told Stokes, "Let's make it fast."

Stokes nodded her head. "Okay, let's hurry it up and get inside. Then, we'll meet back here." she told the other two.

Crowe approached a fence and she could barely make out the sound of a siren going off in the distance. Point Man and Stokes glanced briefly back with caution and Stokes chuckled reassuringly to the other two.

"It's just gotta be a car going off." she told them, "Let's move."

Crowe and Point Man nodded and the trio pressed their way into the mall. Rats scuttled away and avoided their feet. The inside of the mall was dark, so Stokes cast her flashlight on and both Crowe and Point Man followed suit.

"So, what happened with you two anyway?" Stokes asked, looking at Crowe.

"I was captured by Armacham shortly after the blast," Crowe explained, keeping her attention in front of her, "They interrogated me and wanted to know what I knew about Alma. I told them nothing. I didn't know much up until now."

"Really?" Stokes said, interested.

"I think they may have wiped my memory..." Crowe told her, "Only the recent stuff has come to light, stuff I never knew had happened."

"Armacham's tricky like that," Stokes replied, nudging a box and grimacing as a rat scurried out of it, "But it's weird that they'd warp the brains of their own doctors."

"I know." Crowe murmured, concern in her voice.

Fettel drifted silently behind Point Man and Crowe. "They've used you, Crowe," Fettel told her, looking at her with those solid, dark eyes, "You deserve the right to be upset with them. You know it and brother knows it. It's time that they reap what they've sown."

Crowe looked ahead of her and she could see another translucent image appear. She saw herself being dragged away by Terry, screaming at something.

"_A CHILD! SHE WAS JUST A FUCKING CHILD_!"

The voice of Harlan Wade filled her head, though he couldn't be seen. His image appeared as they walked closer.

"_Do not confuse my daughter for your own flesh and blood, Annette_," Harlan warned, "_You've lost your own already. You cannot have mine_."

The image of Crowe screamed again. "_You can't do that to her! What the fuck is wrong with you people_?"

Just then, the image took a dark turn. Harlan's head suddenly burst in an explosion of blood and Alma's voice hissed through the air.

"_Daddy's dead_."

The images disappeared in ash once more.

Crowe split up with the other two and scanned through a drug store, quickly gathering some medicine up into a grocery cart. Fettel drifted beside her, cocking his head. He was quiet for the longest time as he watched her actions.

"What happened to your child, Crowe?" he asked.

Crowe shook her head, her actions hurried and her voice pained. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Mother knows already."

Crowe sighed and her throat choked out her next words. "I don't know how she knows about it, but - "

"What happened?" Fettel asked with a little more force.

Crowe froze and straightened the shotgun around her shoulders. She sighed and gripped the edges of the cart before looking up at Fettel with an angry, bitter smile. Tears threatened to burst forth, but she restrained them as she spoke.

"I had a miscarriage," she told him, "The doctors who worked on me put me through so much stress. I was spoon fed a bunch of bullshit that what they were doing was helping my child." She laughed sorrowfully. "My baby was still kicking inside. They told me that it was phantom fetal movement. For fourteen days I carried my dead baby inside of me. Fourteen days. I lost my child because they were too stupid to take the advice of a mother!"

Fettel smiled. "That is why mother connected with you," he said, "You know the loss of a child as she once had. Taken from the same people who took her own." He gestured beyond him with a flirt of his head. "They don't understand a thing. Don't fall victim to their lies."

Voices whispered through Crowe's head and she looked beyond Fettel, seeing an image of a child Alma Wade watching her through the glass of the drug store. Those orange eyes were dark and pitiless before she disappeared into ash.

"You saw things, Crowe," Fettel continued, moving closer to her, "Things that made them concerned. You weren't as strong as mother. You couldn't do things the way that she could. But you could see them."

Crowe backed up upon reflex. "What are you talking about?" she croaked, suddenly uneasy.

Fettel's eyes slightly widened with a grin that stretched across his face. "At first, they told you that you were insane. They told you that what you saw wasn't really there. But then, they began to question when you claimed that you could speak to your dead grandmother!"

Crowe covered her ears with two hands. "Stop it!" she shouted.

Fettel's grin grew wider. "It's the truth, Crowe. Don't run from it!"

After a moment of recoiling from him, Stokes and Point Man stepped into the drug store and looked around. Stokes noticed Crowe's condition and moved at her side, helping her to stand. Crowe was shaken, frightened.

"Are you okay?" Stokes asked.

Crowe nodded, a sick look crossing her face. "I'm fine. Let's go."

_I wanted to forget._

The sound of a baby crying filled her head.


	4. Interval 03: Portent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "When I had journeyed half of our life's way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray."
> 
> -Dante Alighieri, Canto I, lines 1-3

O

Fettel sensed it first.

There was a change in the sky that turned the black clouds a bright orange as if it were on fire. He knotted his brow as he watched the orange swirl with unholy red and yellow. He was standing at the rooftops of the mall. Point Man joined his side as he too watched. Crowe and Stokes were sitting behind them a few feet away, going over plans and the folder that Crowe had taken from their hiding position back at the Paragon facility.

"Something's happening, brother," Fettel told his brother, "Something magnificent."

As usual, Point Man was silent, focused and determined.

Stokes picked up the radio. "Manny? How are we doing? Any movement down there?"

"_Negative lieutenant. It's been quiet_." Manny answered. "_No signs of movement_."

"Good. Keep it warm just in case," Stokes told him, "We'll be down shortly."

Fettel bent down and squinted toward the lower sides of the demolished buildings to the left of the streets. He followed the shadows that seemed to move with his eyes and a small smile lit his face. Point Man frowned at him questionably.

"Do you see it, brother?" he said. "We're being watched."

Point Man looked alarmed by that. Fettel gestured out toward the buildings. "From the windows. Straight ahead."

Point Man turned, very slowly, to face the direction that Fettel was pointing at. At first, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but then after a moment of studying the darkness; something very faint, like a shifting of the light, and a shadow seemed to move slowly. Then, there were more movements around, multiple shapes and shadows. Point Man furrowed his brow and Fettel chuckled softly at his expression.

"It's all right." he told him, "We should leave now before they decide that they want to make a meal of you and your friends."

Stokes and Crowe stood up and walked up to Point Man.

"Okay." Stokes told him, "Manny says there's been movement nearby but not close enough to be a concern. We need to get - " Point Man held up a hand to her, cutting her off. She frowned. "What's wrong?"

Point Man gestured toward the building that Fettel had indicated and both Crowe and Stokes peered down to see what he was pointing at.

They saw it then.

Jagged, enormous shapes moving through the shadows, blending in as if they were shadows themselves with teeth and glowing red eyes. The horrible death rattle bounced off of the walls of the buildings and sent chills down their backs.

"Manny?" Stokes whispered, her voice shaking in unease, "We need to move. Now."

Manny chuckled, leaning back in his chair with a calm smile. "Lieutenant, relax," he told her, "We're alone out here. There's no move - " A loud thump on top of the APC jolted him into a straight sitting position. Manny looked up warily and the sounds moved toward the mall. "Okay. That might be a bit of a problem."

O

The group made their way back out of the mall and Manny's voice filled Stokes' radio. "Lieutenant, Manny here," he said, cautiously, "I hope you ain't too busy right now. You might have some company headed your way."

"Roger that," Stokes said, "We're on our way. Cover us!"

Suddenly, the glass window overhead shattered and something fell through it, landing hard into the shadows. A sick, disgusting death rattle filled the air and something glowed red in the dark. Crowe and the others tensed with their weapons in hand as a pair of red, glowing eyes stared back at them, slowly advancing.

"Shit," Crowe whispered, "It's just one. Just one. We can take it."

As soon as she said said, multiple red eyes appeared in the shadows and a chorus of death rattles filled the air. Their eyes grew wide in shock and disbelief.

"Fuck." Crowe groaned.

The creatures slowly stepped into the light of their flashlights; they were huge, about the size of small horses and had thin skeletal bodies, long and jagged. Their flesh was split, cracked and dripping with blood and pus and they had long, jagged claws. The most disturbing quality was their faces; canine - like skulls with no eyes, but fiery balls of flame that danced wildly in their heads. Their mouths gushed with blood and saliva.

"Go!" Stokes shouted.

With a powerful chorus of human - like screams, the creatures surged after them. Crowe, Point Man and Stokes raced for the exit while they fired round after round back at the charging monsters. Several of their shots struck, obliterating the creatures in bursts of ash and blood.

"Manny! Get the APC ready!" Stokes commanded.

Outside of the mall, Manny was operating the mounted turret on top of the APC, taking shots at several of the creatures swarming over the mall and toward him. He growled a frustrated curse and reached into his side pocket.

"Fuck this shit!" he spat.

He grabbed a grenade and pulled the pin, tossing it into a swarming mass of creatures. After ducking inside, the grenade exploded, jarring the entire street, sending ash, blood and rubble flying everywhere. Inside the mall, the others were nearly thrown off of their feet from the shuddering impact, but quickly recovered and hurried out to the APC with the monsters nipping at their heels. Manny immediately took the wheel.

"Move your asses!" he shouted.

They quickly piled into the vehicle and Manny took off. The creatures pursued him through the rubble as he blasted through cars and debris as if it were nothing. The creatures piled up onto it and attempted to drag it down as Manny plowed through the highway and into the suburbs. He grunted as he struggled to swerve them off and the three in the backseat made every attempt to hold on tight to their seats.

"Manny, we need to lose them, now!" Stokes cried.

"I fucking know!" he shouted back desperately.

A shriek sounded from one of the monsters and Manny swerved; the massive APC couldn't handle the force of the monsters and Manny's driving skills and tilted to the right, falling flat onto its side. The force crushed several of the creatures as the massive vehicle slid across concrete and obliterated smaller cars in its way. After a long moment, it finally reached a halt after colliding with a housing complex. Everyone inside was knocked out cold.

O

"Quite the driver that one ... "

Crowe groaned and struggled to regain consciousness to the sound of Fettel's amused voice. She could barely focus on the shapes of Stokes, Point Man and Manny as they slowly came back to the real world. Stokes was lying sprawled over the seats that somehow made it onto the floor.

"Okay, who's not dead?" she groaned, rubbing her bleeding forehead, "Sound off!"

Manny was painfully mashed in between the driver's seat and the controls of the APC. His lip was cut and oozing blood and he looked a little dazed, but he seemed to be fine. Point Man was also regaining his senses and peered through the cracked door of the APC. With a wicked kick, he managed to knock it open a ways, just enough to slip himself out. One by one, the others followed suit and they took a moment to check their injuries.

"Okay, are we all in one piece?" Stokes asked.

Manny groaned and surveyed the damage to the APC. "Ah shit, it's fucked to hell and back," he snapped, "We're going to need another way to move."

Overhead, a helicopter passed by, shining a bright floodlight down over the suburban area and immediately, the trio moved behind the damaged APC to avoid being seen. Several more helicopters were surveying the area.

"We got fleas, lieutenant," Manny whispered.

Crowe looked around to survey the surrounding area. It appeared that the suburban area had been placed under quarantine by Armacham given the tattered flags and stickers slapped onto doors and windows of the seemingly abandoned area. There had also been barricades set up and worst of all, movement of Armacham troops moving down several streets. They didn't appear to be hostile at the moment. The word was sure to get out that they were there.

"We need to move!" Stokes whispered, "We need to leave this site now before they find us!"

They slowly made their way into the housing complex behind them through the broken wall and ducked to avoid the shining floodlight. Much to their dismay, SAVAGE's voice filled the air through the radio.

"_The targets have made their way into the suburbs_," he announced, "_I want all available units in the area on sight_."

Stokes looked up at Point Man. "Any ideas?" she asked, "I'm open to them."

He gave her a brief look that broadcasted a simple message: "Don't Die". Crowe met his look once before she turned her attention to Stokes.

"Armacham's set up a base camp nearby," she told the woman.

Stokes frowned. "How do you know?" she asked.

Crowe gestured out through the cracked wall and pointed toward a radio tower through the trees. "See that tower?" she said.

"Yeah." Stokes murmured, somewhat embarrassed that she'd missed it.

"If Armacham has Beckett, there's no doubt in my mind they may have him here," Crowe continued, glancing once to Point Man to see his reaction; he had none, "If we can find him and get him out of here, he can tell us what their plan is."

Manny gave her a skeptical look. "And how would you like us to do that?" he snapped.

"I don't know ... "

O

The apartment complex appeared to be empty, save for the lit candles and the grizzly blood paintings on the walls. The three stayed perfectly close to one another as they walked down the halls, trying to avoid being jumped by Cultists.

"What the hell are they even doing in here?" Stokes whispered, "What's with these ... altars?"

Crowe shook her head. "I don't know. I think they're worshiping Alma or something. Fettel mentioned that her powers messed them up pretty bad."

Manny and Stokes looked at her with a dumbfounded look at the mention of the deceased Armacham Commander. "Fettel?" Manny said, frowning, "Paxton Fettel? I'd heard that he was taken out a while ago."

Crowe smiled uneasily at their confused looks. "Ah. never mind." she told them, "Let's keep looking."

Fettel chuckled softly at her uncomfortable expression.

The three peered through various apartment rooms, scanning for signs of enemy activity. Point Man stepped into one of the apartments and sensed a heavy change in temperature here. He looked up and spotted the translucent image of a woman staring out of the window. Finally, there was the false sound of a gunshot and her head exploded. The image disappeared into ash once again and Point Man furrowed his brow, ignoring the echo.

Sometimes, his mother showed him echoes of what had happened and they may not have had anything to do with him at all. Did she want him to see the horrors of this cruel reality? Did she want him to understand the hell that she had brought to the world for what Armacham had done?

Meanwhile, Crowe stepped into another apartment, observing the terrible images painted along the wall. Some were carved into the wood, various cryptic messages that chilled her very blood just looking at them.

GOD HELP US.

SHE'S ALWAYS WATCHING. I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE.

OUR MOTHER WILL KILL US.

Crowe peered through the tattered window, spotting the helicopters in the distance. Behind her in the bathroom, something darted and she sensed it immediately. Slowly turning, Crowe raised her shotgun toward the barely open bathroom door and inched her way toward it, her footsteps creaking the weakened wood beneath her, splintering it slightly. She didn't even consider the fact that the foundation was so very weak and could break at any second...

She peered into the bathroom, ignoring the rancid smells that greeted her and yelped when a black shape raced passed her; a shrieking raccoon. It took off with a sharp shriek of fright and she laughed weakly in relief, relaxing. She took a step back toward the apartment door, but the wood beneath her feet snapped and she gave a shout, plummeting into the darkness below. The sound reached the others and they hurried to her spot.

"Doctor Crowe!" Stokes shouted, rushing toward the hole that she had disappeared through.

"Shit! Hey! Crowe!" Manny called down to the fallen woman, listening to weak moans answer him.

The two shined their lights down into the dusty darkness and they could see Crowe's body lying flat on top of an old bed, surrounded by fragments of wood. She looked dazed and disoriented, but she was okay.

"I'm okay!" she called up to them. "I'm fine!"

Manny chuckled at her condition. "How's the view from down there, doctor?" he joked. He laughed, but winced when Stokes elbowed him in the ribs.

"We'll find a way down to you, okay?" Stokes told her.

Crowe coughed out some of the dust that had filled her mouth. "I'll catch up with you guys outside!" she called up to her, "I'll be okay."

Fettel chuckled quietly and looked sidelong at Point Man. "She's more trouble than she's worth."

Crowe staggered to her feet, wincing at the horrible pain in her legs. She was lucky that she had fallen on the old bed, otherwise she was sure that she would have broken something serious. She slowly worked her way through rubble, garbage and wood toward the apartment door. She struggled to push it open and squeezed through it to step into the hallway. Despite all of the rubble around her and the garbage, she was able to maneuver herself through it so that she reached the stairs. She walked down them and advanced toward the next floor. There was a strange change on temperature here; it felt scalding hot and was difficult for her to breathe.

"_You're going to die out here, Crowe,_" a voice whispered from the shadows; she recognized it as the voice of Terry Halford.

Crowe turned and noticed that he was now standing there among the horrible pools of blood. He wasn't real, he couldn't be real. His eyes looked dead and sunken, lifeless without a spark of light in them. His throat was covered in blood and his lab coat was soaked in it.

"You're not real ... " Crowe whispered, shaking her head, "You're dead."

Terry chuckled dryly. "_Yeah. I was your friend and that's how you remember me_," he snapped, "_They don't shine on backstabbers, you know that. They fucked me up for it. They'll do the same to you. It's only a matter of time._"

Crowe closed her eyes and tried to rid herself of the image. She hated seeing the dead; always in their final moments.

"_They think you're a freak_," Terry sneered, "_Who can blame 'em? You see the dead. You tried to ignore it every waking day of your fucked up life, but you never could. What person in their right mind has that kind of gift_?"

"I told you, I'm not listening!" Crowe snarled, glaring at him, "You're a fucking lie!"

Terry laughed and reached up, placing his hands on either side of his head. With a sick, wet sound, he pulled his head clear off of his shoulders. Stringy bits of blood, meat and tendons dangled uselessly from his decapitated head and he held it underneath his arm like a basketball.

"_Take it easy_," he sneered, "_No need to lose your head_."

Crowe winced and closed her eyes, trying to blot it out.

"_Am I really a lie, Crowe_?" Terry's head whispered, "_Or am I your guilt? Unable to move on because somehow, despite all of this crazy shit that's happened ... you blame yourself for my death_?"

She pushed her way through the boxes, ignoring Terry's words. Then, what he said next concerned her.

"_They want to kill her, you know_," he said, "_You know it's not right. You want to believe that she can be saved. Why are you with them if you know that's what's going to happen_?"

"I can change their minds, can't I?" Crowe growled, grunting with effort to avoid a bed spring.

Terry laughed dryly, his words rasping out of him.

"_Try and try, but you'll never win_," he told her, "_You weren't meant to win_."

O

Two helicopters were flying toward the building and several soldiers began to move through the suburbs, scanning for signs of the escaped group. Crowe could see through the window of the floor that she was on and her eyes widened.

"Move up team!" the leader of the soldier group commanded, "Take out that building! Flush 'em out!"

Behind the small army of soldiers, a towering Elite Powered Armor Suit was advancing toward the apartment complex. The powerful, high - caliber three - barreled rotary guns mounted on its forearms whirred to life and began showering the building with shellfire. It shredded the walls and Crowe and the others immediately rushed to the back of the apartment, just as a single rocket screamed toward the building, taking out the front of it completely.

"Shit!" Manny screamed, over the roar of the heavy shell fire. "We gotta move!"

Crowe scampered out of the rubble and rushed up to meet with them. The EPA was charging through the building as if it were made of cardboard and barreled toward the group with the weapons locked and loaded.

"_Surrender your weapons_!" the soldier inside of the machine commanded, "_Drop down and you will not be harmed_!"

Manny laughed angrily. "Come and take 'em, Armacham fuckhead!" he shouted.

Through the smoke and chaos as the three ducked behind a stone gazebo, several Armacham soldiers poured into the yard, their weapons at the ready. Point Man moved quickly through the chaos of the gunfire, seizing one of the soldiers by the throat and snapping his neck. Stokes and Manny watched him move with cheetah - like speed, grabbing soldiers and taking them out with ease. He seized one of the soldiers by the arm and twisted, yanking the weapon out of his hands. It was a Shark FL-3 laser gun; deadly in the right hands.

Point Man seized it, snapped his elbow in the guard's head and turned it toward the EPA. The high powered beam sliced through the thick armor of the back of the suit. It whirled and the pilot gave a shout of rage. While he was distracted with Point Man, the others began to unleash round after round from their own weapons. The ammunition count on the laser gun depleted rapidly, draining the energy cells dry. Point Man discarded the gun and immediately retrieved his assault rifle around his chest.

The enormous suit lurched back and collapsed in a pile of electrified metal. Immediately, the pilot crawled from it, coughing. He was seized by Point Man and forced to look up at his cold, dark eyes. The others moved around him.

"Where's Sergeant Beckett?" Stokes demanded.

The soldier groaned weakly, glaring up at her. "Fuck you!"

Manny scowled at him now. "No! Fuck you, asshole!" he spat, pressing the barrel of his weapon into his left eye, "We've been crawling through shit and psychos for days! You tell us where they're keeping Beckett or my several little friends here are going to spray your brains all over this fucking grass!"

The soldier winced in pain and gestured shakily toward the tower over the trees. "There's a warehouse nearby. I know the big heads have information about your friend in there." When the barrel off the weapon pressed tighter to his head, he gave a frantic cry. "It's all I know! Please!"

Point Man dropped him to the ground and the three turned to go. They started leaving when the soldier's cruel voice piped up.

"Good luck finding your little whore!" he snarled.

Crowe stopped in her gait and bared her teeth with a hiss of anger at the words. She turned and drove the end of her shotgun into the soldier's face as hard as she could muster with a shout of fury. Dazed, he toppled to the grass and was still, blood gushing like a waterfall from his mouth and nose. She growled furiously and walked passed the others, disgusted. They watched as she walked ahead and immediately started following her again.

"Shit..." Manny said, surprised, "Remind me not to piss her ass off."

O

The group worked their way through the woods until they arrived at the warehouse. All around them, they discovered the broken, bloody forms of the Cultists lying in piles around the gates and fences, their bodies riddled with bullet holes. They slowly made their way over the gate and passed several trucks and Armacham APC's. The warehouse was barely lit and several of the lights started flickering in the presence of unnatural, unholy shades.

Fettel smiled at Point Man. "Ahh. A dark lit place. Much like where I had spent my final hours," he mused, "Unarmed, alone and driven mad. Mother is in there. She wants us to see." He paused and tilted his head. "Go on then, brother. Don't be shy."

The frightening sounds of the shades that Crowe and Point Man had encountered in the school filled them with unease. They sounded close. What was also disturbing was the fact that the base that had once been filled with life of the soldiers now became unbearably silent.

"Something's wrong," Stokes whispered, "It's too quiet."

Point Man stepped through a open door and noticed that there was a wicked trail of bloody claw marks that seemed to drag across the wall of the locker room. They continued further down the hall, passing an office filled with the corpses of several soldiers who had been impaled with pieces of pipes and pinned to the walls. The glass windows were smeared with their blood and Crowe grimaced at the painful sight of one of the impaled through the head with the pipe jutting out of his eye.

"Oh God ... " she whispered.

The group continued through the break room and the wet sound of fluid dripping filled the air. Something fell on Manny's face and he frowned, reaching up and touched the affronted spot on his forehead. He came back with a finger full of blood. He looked up toward the ventilation shaft and noticed that it was dripping bright red blood. He furrowed his brow and stared at it long enough; then, the vent collapsed and a half - eaten corpse fell through, directly on top of him.

"Ah! Ah, shit! Get it off!" he shouted.

Stokes and Point Man pulled the body off and Stokes laughed skeptically. "Relax, it's just leftovers," she told him. She realized what she had said and stared down at the corpse. "Ah Christ, that's disgusting."

Suddenly, SAVAGE's voice filtered through the radio.

"_All units, be advised that Omega Team isn't responding_," he announced.

Another soldier's voice piped up. "_Command, this is Echo Five. Should we investigate_?"

"_Negative. I'll dispatch a search team_."

The group continued through the warehouse until the arrived at the storage room. It was filled with bloody corpses as well as Armacham monitors and consoles. There were several cases of weaponry lying about and fallen shells. Crowe stopped and studied the hanging corpse of a soldier with his mask removed. His body had been pierced through the chest and his head was hanging low. Blood dripped down from his face and wounds. Crowe leaned down a bit and noticed that he had two shells from a Penetrator weapon embedded deeply into his eyes. She grimaced and looked over toward Point Man and the others as they walked toward a computer.

"It's still warm," Stokes said, typing on the computer, "Looks like they have a few recorded sessions still - "

She cut herself off as the computer whirred to life, revealing a camera recorded image of an interrogation room. Stokes watched in disbelief as Beckett appeared, pushed harshly into the chair. A man in a white lab coat sat down across from him.

"_This will go so much smoothly if you tell us what happened_," the doctor told him.

Beckett leaned forward and they received a good look at his face; it was scratched and beaten with scars and bandages. He chuckled wickedly and his eyes widened with insanity. He looked nothing like the man that Stokes and Manny knew.

"_I told you what happened_," he hissed, "_Alma Wade happened. She ... chose ... ME! She chose me! She chose me because I was perfect! SHE CHOSE ME BECAUSE SHE LOVED ME_!"

"_She didn't love you, Michael_," the doctor said, gently, "_She became obsessed with your abilities. If you let us take you the easy way, we can put an end to - _"

"_Why would I want to end it_?" Beckett crowed, nearly spitting in the camera, "_The child is mine! I would want nothing more to do with you! It's mine! I deserve the right to see her_!"

Stokes and Manny looked stunned by this; Fettel looked partially surprised and Point Man had no reaction save for a slight widening of his eyes. Crowe also looked stunned and could say nothing more about it.

On screen, Beckett started to stand out of his chair and the doctor raised two hands to calm him.

"_Michael please, let's just think about this for a second_!" he said, "_She doesn't love you! She raped you! She doesn't know what love is_!"

Suddenly, the screen flickered wildly about and the doctor's head burst in an explosion of blood and guts. Stokes recoiled, a hand going to her mouth. Manny gasped in shock and Fettel's eyes widened with a broad grin on his face.

"_Mother's made him stronger," he said, "_This ... Michael Beckett_."_

__

__

Crowe shuddered and the corpse beside her suddenly lifted its head, speaking in a deadened, lifeless tone. But he was grinning, the blood trickling down his cheeks made his grin look even worse than before. Crowe pretended to ignore it.

"_We deserve to be punished for this_," he hissed, "_All of us_!"


	5. Interval 04: Horizon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them."
> 
> \- Charles de Montesquieu

O

The sky had become red, as if it were burning. Throughout the city, the buildings began to vibrate under the powerful hum of Alma Wade's moan that carried through the wind. It was barely heard by Crowe, Point Man, Stokes and Manny as they made their way through the city's highway. The dark clouds seemed to never want to let up. It was as if the sun was no longer permitted to shine again. No longer allowed for light to pass through the obliterated ruins of the city.

They crossed the bridge over the ocean and Stokes peered in the distance, spotting the familiar sight of Still Island; a tiny speck over the horizon. The dark clouds seemed to originate completely from that spot, drawn to it like fireflies to the light.

"Is that it?" Crowe asked.

Stokes nodded her head. "Yeah. That's where we need to go."

Fettel and Point Man watched the distant speck for the longest time, in silent contemplation.

"She's waiting for us, brother," he told him, "Our mother. The last shred of our family." He looked to his brother, raising a brow. "Tell me ... You do not plan on killing mother, are you?" Of course, he received no response. "Would you kill another family member for them? They are not family. They will most likely seek your demise as well if they knew who you were. Do you want to live the rest of your life like that? Or live as we so rightfully should ... as Gods!"

Point Man seemed conflicted by this and Crowe could see it in his eyes. His lips tightened and he swiftly turned, leading the way through the rubble and barricades that had been set up by Armacham a while back.

A death rattle filled the air and they stared back, noticing that the hound - like creatures were in pursuit through the rubble, scaling over cars and debris. Manny groaned in frustration and they immediately fled.

"Ah shit, shit!" he groaned, "These bastards just don't quit!"

"Get moving!" Stokes shouted, "Once we get across the bridge, we can lose 'em!"

The group ran as fast as they could, scaling over cars and rubble in their path. Point Man stepped up along the edge of a pickup truck and fired off several rounds at the creatures. His precision took down five of them, but there were at least several more still coming. Manny was the last to make it to the other side and he was suddenly yanked - sucked by his leg with a fierce scream. One of the hounds dragged him back, its teeth pressed deep into the flesh of his ankle.

Point Man moved swiftly and delivered a fierce kick to its side, sending it sprawling. He grabbed Manny's arm and yanked him to stand, forcing him back toward the end of the bridge. Stokes watched as the furious creatures slowly started to advance and she looked down at an open fuel tank that dripped from one of the cars. She aimed her weapon and took a shot directly at it. It erupted into a ball of fire, sending the group sprawling backwards and obliterating the creatures in the same instance.

Dazed, the group slowly staggered to their feet but Manny winced and knelt back down. Crowe looked down at him and bent down to study the wound. He batted her hands away when she attempted to reach.

"Hey, let me see," she said, "I'm a doctor."

Manny growled, but reluctantly let her peel back the ripped cloth of his pants. There was a bloody row of teeth marks in the flesh of his ankle as well as a burn. She looked up at the man and shook her head.

"We need to get this cleaned up, otherwise you're going to get an infection." she said.

Manny shook his head. "We got bigger problems to worry about right now."

"Look, you're going to be no good to anyone if this starts to fester," Crowe argued, "Let's find a pharmacy and get this taken care of."

Manny sighed impatiently and stood up. "Okay. But I'd better not have to deal with needles."

Crowe smirked at him. "A lot of them." He blinked in disbelief and she laughed. "I'm kidding."

Meanwhile, at an Armacham campsite near a factory, SAVAGE was gathering his troops into a carrier helicopter, gesturing wildly for them to hurry. Behind him, VECTOR was staggering on weakened legs; his body had been horribly tattered from the attacks by the hounds and a portion of his face was exposed through a crack in his helmet. His bloodshot eye was slashed and bleeding. When SAVAGE turned and saw his comrade, he grunted.

"VECTOR, what happened?" he demanded.

VECTOR groaned in pain, clutching his side. Blood was gushing through the armor. "We were ambushed!" he snarled, "I don't know what they were, but they tore my men apart! I pulled myself out of the battle before they could finish me!"

SAVAGE looked beyond VECTOR to the wicked trail of blood that he had created coming back to their camp. He could hear the rattling sounds of the hound's call as well as the screams of the Cultists as they grew louder. He leered down at his fellow Commander with a snarl.

"You've led them right to us!" he spat.

VECTOR groaneed in pain again and started toward the helicopter as SAVAGE finally climbed in. He turned to the wounded commander with a snort when VECTOR attempted to crawl his way into the carrier.

"Wh-What are you doing?" VECTOR demanded, "You can't leave me like this!"

"Sorry, VECTOR, but I'm afraid we will be going on without you this time; we cannot afford to be tied down by ... dead weight." he said, pressing his foot against VECTOR's forehead and shoving him aside like refuse. VECTOR's strength had all but left him and he stumbled back, falling to the ground. The carrier lifted off of the ground, leaving a stunned VECTOR alone, lying in a gradually forming pool of his own blood.

He could make out the sounds of chaos as they drew closer and closer to him.

To tear him apart.

O

Manny winced in pain as Crowe began to thread the flesh of his leg back into its proper place. They had taken cover inside a pharmacy and Crowe began to clean and tend to Manny's wounds while Point Man and Stokes stood guard.

"Ah! Be easy!" Manny snapped, glaring at her, "That hurts!"

Crowe scoffed at him. "Grow a pair."

Stokes walked over to the counter and opened up a folder; Crowe's and the ones that they had taken from the warehouse by the suburbs. "They have Beckett held at the Airport," she said, "It's going to be heavily guarded without a doubt."

Manny grunted in pain. "Sounds like it's going to be fun ... "

Stokes paged through some documents before looking up. "Doctor Crowe, what part did you play in Project Harbinger?" she asked.

Crowe grabbed a pair of scissors to snip the excess thread on Manny's leg. "No part. I was stationed at the Paragon Facility with Terry Halford," she grunted, "Then I was transferred out after ... " She trailed off and froze in the middle of her work.

"After?" Stokes inquired.

Crowe was quiet for a long time before she shook her head and started wrapping Manny's leg with gauze. "Nothing. It's nothing."

Stokes scowled and rounded the counter top toward the woman. "Nothing? Wait, wait. Not nothing!" she insisted, "If you know anything that might be able to help us, now's a good time as any to speak up!"

Crowe scowled and angrily tightened the gauze on Manny's leg, drawing a yelp of pain from him. "Don't worry about it!" she spat.

"Hey! Don't take it out on me, okay?" Manny protested, wincing.

Crowe gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry."

Stokes frowned intensely and grabbed Crowe's shoulder. "Doctor, what happened?" she asked.

Crowe sighed and shut her eyes. She resumed her work of wrapping Manny's leg. "Terry and I were partners in the labs," she said, "We were really close friends."

Manny shrugged. "Fuck buddies?"

Crowe scowled at him. "Never mind the fact that he's 15 years younger than me, dumbass." she snapped.

Manny smiled and shrugged his shoulders again. "Hey, it's cool. I'm not going to judge you."

"Anyway," Crowe continued, giving Manny a brief dirty look before; she tied the gauze in a small knot, "Terry and I saw a lot of children come in through the facility. I was never posed as one of the teachers there; I worked in the medical labs manufacturing the medications and tending to the experiments. Armacham took an interest in me because ... " She trailed off and closed her eyes before looking at Stokes weakly. "I could see things."

"Things?" Stokes asked, concerned.

"Things that SHE showed me. Things that I didn't want to see," Crowe told her, "I was five years old when I was visited by my grandmother."

Stokes shrugged. "So?"

"My grandmother died when I was two years old. It was a hunting accident ... She wasn't wearing a jacket and she was shot by another hunter." Crowe sighed and shook her head with pain. "She always did like to do crazy things."

An image of Crowe's grandmother flashed through her head, the back of her head missing from a gunshot wound. Her eyes were lifeless and empty, but she was smiling sweetly.

"My father tried to protect me from Aristide shortly after they'd started running tests," Crowe continued, "He told them that I wasn't worth the risk. That all I could do was see the dead. They wanted to turn me into a Replica Commander, but he denied them of that. He started manufacturing medication for me so that I'd stop seeing the images in my head. Since I stopped taking it a while ago after he'd died, I started seeing them again."

Stokes looked dazed by the knowledge. "And what does this have to do with Alma?" she asked.

"I was visited by Alma Wade when I was a little girl," Crowe said, "My father worked in the Origin facility and since we could not afford a babysitter, sometimes I came with him. Alma visited the only one at the facility who had a strong telesthetic signature. At first, she simply approached me and I had no idea who she was. I was five years old. I didn't know any better. She wanted me to help her. I didn't know how."

Anyway, I was transferred because I discovered the truth about Alma Wade. I couldn't believe what they'd done to her and what they wanted to do to those children at the school. Harlan Wade said I was out of my mind for trying to save another child that wasn't even mine." She chuckled sadly and closed her eyes. "I was a few months pregnant and I'd suffered a miscarriage. I lost my child and they thought maybe I was growing too attached to the children I was working on. So they sent me away, feeling that it was my own good. I was concerned about what they'd do to Terry after hearing that they were losing control of the situation."

_Crowe was standing at Harlan Wade's office door, her arms folded across her chest. She looked like she hadn't been sleeping in days; her eyes were bloodshot and the undersides darkened heavily with exhaustion._

_"I know," she told the man, darkly, "I know what you did to her."_

_Harlan's gaze darkened now. "What are you talking about?"_

_Their confrontation had started to draw the attention of the other doctors, including Terry. He immediately jogged up and started to pull her away. "Come on, Annette," he said, in a warning voice, "Don't go crazy on me now."_

_"Alma Wade, you sick prat!" Crowe snarled at Harlan. He watched his eyes widen slightly in surprise. "Yeah, I found out what you've been doing. How could you do something like that to her? She was just a child! A CHILD! SHE WAS JUST A FUCKING CHILD!"_

_Harlan chuckled scornfully and ignored the concerned looks from the other doctors. "Never mind her behavior," he told them, "She lost a child once and now she seeks to lay claim to my own. She is delusional, she suffers from the illness of loss."_

_"Fuck you!" Crowe spat, struggling against Terry's grip._

_Harlan calmly stepped closer to her, speaking coldly and severely. "Do not confuse my daughter for your own flesh and blood, Annette," he warned, in a low voice hiding with it menace, "You've lost your own already. You cannot have mine."_

_Crowe shook her head desperately. "You can't do that to her!" She looked around at the other doctors who made no attempt to argue with the man. "What the fuck is wrong with you people?"_

_Harlan sighed. "I think it's time that you were transferred from the Paragon facility," he said, with finality, "Perhaps you can use this time to calm yourself down."_

Stokes shook her head. "This is crazy ... " she murmured, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

Crowe looked at her and spoke gently, but severely. "I will help you find her," she promised, "I'll help in whatever way I can. I'll help you with rescuing your friend, Michael Beckett, but I will not help you destroy her."

Stokes shook her head in disbelief. "I don't get it!" she cried, "Why are you so crazy about saving her? She's fucking killed everyone we care about and destroyed everything!" She grabbed Crowe by her arms and shook her, looking desperately at the woman and trying to understand what it was that made her come to such an irrational and delusional decision. "Why? WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING HER?"

Crowe shut her eyes and sighed softly. "Because she is right about one thing; they all deserve to die," she told her, "All of them responsible. No one is above judgement and she saw that before all of us ever had."

O

The group continued working their way through the city.

"It's too fucking quiet out here," Manny whispered.

Suddenly, a shot sounded, narrowly missing Manny's head. They quickly ducked down into an open sewer pipe and avoided the next shot. Stokes winced and peered through the top of the truck that they used for cover.

"Shit, they got snipers out after us!" she whispered, "What are we going to do now?"

"Break them out!" came a shout from above.

Point Man gestured for them to follow and they quickly lowered themselves to the ground, attempting to crawl away from the searching lasers. Another shot nearly took Stokes' head off as they worked their way toward an alley. They pressed their backs to the wall and followed him through a massive hole that led into the remnants of a motel. The sounds of gunfire rang out all around them, but it seemed that the Armacham group had finally gotten distracted with possible Cultists on the other side.

Several areas looked to be burning and tattered wires crackled wildly about. Stokes observed the area around them; they were standing among what remained of the pool. There wasn't a sign of movement around them either.

"Looks clear," Stokes said, relaxing.

They moved forward through the motel's remains and out into the next street; it was empty here and there was scrap of a downed airplane with the Fairport Airlines symbols on it. The group climbed over it to reach the other side of the street and then, Point Man sensed the presence of another echo close to him. He glanced up briefly in the shadows of an alleyway and spotted the blood - soaked specter of Spencer Jankowski, eyeless and all. He suddenly appeared behind Point Man, whispering softly in his ear.

"Buddy ... You didn't forget about me, did you?" he purred, "Not your old friend Spencer?"

Point Man ignored the shade of his once fellow FEAR operative and it disappeared into black ash with a dry, pitiless laugh to follow. Stokes furrowed her brow and glanced over her shoulder to Point Man, uncertainty on her face.

"Did you feel that?" she asked.

They stopped and Manny looked at her cluelessly. "What's wrong?" he asked.

It was quiet for a few minutes and suddenly, the ground below their feet began to tear and buckle. Immediately, they staggered away and the ground at Stokes' feet crumbled, sending her falling to the waiting void below ...

She was abruptly seized by Crowe and for the moment, both women met each other's gazes. It was tense and at that second, Stokes was sure that Crowe would let her fall. Then, something changed in the other woman's eyes and she pulled Stokes up onto proper land. Stokes took a moment to catch her breath before she smiled weakly at Crowe.

"Shit. I owe you one." she said.

Crowe made a face. "I wasn't just going to stand there and let it swallow you." she replied, though her voice didn't seem convincing.

Behind the group, the shape of the child - like Alma Wade suddenly sprinted across the street from left to right, accompanied by an eerie, yet soft laugh. Point Man, Fettel and Crowe suddenly stared ahead at the sight, drawing the confused looks of Stokes and Manny - of course, they couldn't very well see Fettel, but they did understand that whatever it was, it had suddenly earned the attention of them and snapped them away from the conversation.

"Hey, what's with the creepy looks, you guys?" Manny asked.

"She's close," Crowe told the two, "We have to keep moving."

Crowe could suddenly hear another voice hissing cruelly at her. She blinked and looked over her shoulder as the others ventured forward. There were flickering, translucent shapes of the dead all around her, innocent, helpless victims of the explosion. Standing among them was her mother; broken and lifeless. She had gauze wrapped over her eyes and the gauze was soaked in blood. Her mouth trickled rivers of it and her hospital gown was soaked.

"Mom?" Crowe whispered.

"_She's changing you, Crowe_," her mother crooned, "_You're going to lose your mind eventually, just like I did. You remember what daddy did to me_?" She grinned and pulled the gauze away, revealing empty, bloody eye sockets. Crowe turned her head away and nearly threw up from the terrible, disturbing sight. "_Hehe. That's right - ignore me for as long as it takes, sweetie. You can't win; eventually it will take over like the rest. Let it fester - let it rot. It'll only make it worse in the end_."

O

The throng of Cultists charging wildly for them had fortunately become thwarted by the presence of Armacham troops. Point Man and his group made their way toward the hospital to avoid the battling forces.

"Damn," Manny whispered, once they arrived into the lobby, "What do we do now?"

The sound of SAVAGE's voice filled the air through their radio.

"_Ground Team Delta, they may have already moved through your position_," he said, "_Keep your eyes open_."

"_Sir, we've got civilians attacking us from all sides_!"

SAVAGE's voice became severe. "_You will keep those eyes of yours open even if I have to staple them to your forehead. The targets cannot reach Sergeant Beckett, am I clear_?"

"_Roger that, sir..._"

Stokes looked at the others. "Okay, we can cut through the hospital and move up Kennedy Street," she told them, "Once there, we can cross through St. Mary's Graveyard. It'll take us right to the airport once we pass through Davin and 46th Street."

Crowe smiled sarcastically. "Yeah, that's a great plan. I guess you didn't take into consideration of the hundreds of troops, hell hounds and crazy Cultists running around ... "

"If we're careful, we won't have to deal with them for much longer," Stokes told the woman.

"Yeah, look how much good that's been doing us," Manny snapped.

"Alright," Stokes said, impatiently, "Let's just stick together and work our way through this hospital and then we can worry about that later."

Crowe looked around, spotting several tattered wires snapping with electricity, a few alarms were going off, but that was probably the systems attempting to come back online or restore themselves. There were yellow lights flashing throughout the corridors and halls. She could also see blood - painted messages written on the walls as well. Point Man noticed them and looked up toward a familiar song scribbled down.

Ring around the Rosie

Pocket full of posies

Ashes, ashes

We all fall down

There were painted images of people being killed by something that resembled the terrible hell hounds that had attacked them earlier. Point Man looked up now and saw the translucent specter of Charles Habbeger standing on the steps. He remembered how Fettel had eaten most of his face before he was killed. The ghostly shape of the man looked the same as he had died and watched Point Man with dark, pitiless eyes.

"Don't let me die ... " Habbeger whispered, weakly, "I didn't mean for it to happen."

He disappeared into a puff of black ash again.

O

The hospital was quiet save for crackling wires and machines on the fritz. They passed a few rooms and then, there was a soft laughing sound. Manny looked up cautiously and met Stokes' concerned look. They followed the sound until they reached one of the rooms. There was a person in a lab coat standing there, laughing softly, but insanely. Stokes frowned and approached carefully and noticed that it was a woman. She was soaked in blood and standing over the remains of a person. Her face looked like it was covered in it and remnants of gore

"Hey, hey, can you hear me?" Stokes asked.

The woman continued to laugh as if Stokes wasn't even there. "Mom, are you there?" she cried, hysterically, "Mom. Mom, wake up."

Stokes cringed painfully and looked back at the others.

"You're mom's not here," she told the insane woman, "You need to get out of here."

"Mom! Mom!" the woman moaned.

"We need to go ... " Manny whispered, "She's gone. There's nothing we can do for her."

As they abandoned the room, the sounds of beeping suddenly filled the air. They looked down the hallways and noticed crowds of Cultists surging toward them, their bodies strapped tight with what appeared to be explosive devices.

"Oh fuck!" Manny shouted.

They ran as fast as they could down the halls toward the exit doors with the Cultists in hot pursuit. As soon as they burst through the doors, the Cultists' bombs erupted, sending them flying through the air toward the grass. Everything appeared to go in slow motion moments before their worlds went black.


	6. Interval 05: Inquisition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do"
> 
> \- Voltaire

O

Crowe awoke to the sounds of Stokes' voice. Her head was ringing and she looked around the burning grass yard to see her comrades slowly getting to their feet. Fettel was squatting beside her, smiling with contempt.

"Quite a surprise, wasn't it?" he said.

They moved to their feet and started toward Kennedy street by cutting through the alleyway. As they entered the street, two Armacham soldiers rushed off without attacking them. They watched them go, confused.

"Fall back!" one of the soldiers shouted.

Manny scoffed. "Shit. Looks like these fuckers are pulling out. What are they running from anyway?"

Stokes turned around and her eyes widened. "I might have an idea ... "

They looked to see what she was talking about and sure enough, the ground was beginning to split and tear; sinkholes slowly opened up, swallowing cars and debris into a flaming darkness below. The group turned and ran from the collapsing street, sprinting around the corner seconds before the ground could take them. Stokes and Manny stared at the seemingly bottomless hole in disbelief, unable to comprehend why.

Point Man, Crowe and Fettel could.

"Mother's power grows stronger," Fettel told the two, "She must be close to birthing."

"The airport isn't far," Stokes said, "We need to get moving now."

They turned to go and suddenly, Crowe and Point Man came face - to - face with Alma's haggard, hideous form. Crowe froze in shock and Alma tilted her head at them. She reached out to grab her son, but Point Man shoved her aside with a cold scowl on his face. Alma disappeared with a soft, angry shriek.

Stokes grunted and shook her radio, unaware of what had just happened. "Shit, radio's crapping out." she muttered. When the static passed, she smiled. "Ah, never mind. It's fine."

Above them, the clouds rumbled ominously as they worked their way toward the airport. Sure enough, there were literally hundreds of Armacham soldiers standing guard outside of the front doors. They could guess that they had been stationed everywhere.

"Of course," Manny muttered, "So what's the plan for getting passed these assholes?"

"Waste them all!" Stokes declared.

She surged out of their hiding spot through the tarmac and literally unleashed hell onto the stunned Armacham soldiers. The others quickly followed suit and started taking out each and every soldier who rushd toward them with their weapons. Point Man moved behind a mail box just as a soldier surged toward him with a shotgun firing off several rounds that chipped horribly at the metal. Point Man grabbed a pipe lying a few yards away and he flung it directly at the soldier. It spun through the air like a boomerang and impaled the soldier in the head.

Crowe meanwhile delivered shot after shot at two Armacham soldiers standing on a balcony overhead.

"Eat this, bitch!" one of them snarled, tossing a grenade down at her.

Crowe blinked in shock and quickly rushed to avoid the explosive, seconds before it exploded. Her head rang from the blast and she swayed, disoriented. She looked around at the chaos going on without any sound save for the high - pitched ringing sound. She could see the air around several soldiers crackling and heat as the hellhounds suddenly appeared with the Armacham troops, tearing into them and charging for her comrades.

"Doctor Crowe!" Stokes' voice was finally heard.

Crowe blinked and looked up at Stokes as the woman started dragging her by the arm toward the entrance to the terminal. They scaled up the stairs and Manny and Point Man were not far behind them. Point Man fired off a volley of rounds from his assault rifle to keep the hellhounds at bay before he shut the doors moments before they could charge again. He slipped his now empty rifle into the handles to keep them shut.

Fettel shook his head. "That won't keep them out."

Point Man stared at the closed doors for the longest time before he turned toward the left of the empty maintenance tunnel. He felt a dull ache in his head and shut his eyes. When he opened them again, he was no longer standing inside of the airport, but a tiled corridor with a completely blood - covered ceiling and a trail of bloody footprints leading down the corridor toward a glass - paneled door with fire crackling behind it.

The sounds of laughter filled the air.

"_My baby ... _"

Point Man approached the flaming door and he could barely sense the presence of his mother behind him; haggard and sickly once more. He ignored her and reached for the door handle. He pushed it open and as soon as he did, he was standing outside in a forest world. Point Man frowned and looked around, seeing two little boys in Armacham uniforms playing together through a small playground. He approached the scene and noticed that they were playing with a dog; a stray puppy.

Standing a few feet away was Harlan Wade.

He approached and the boys stopped what they were doing. Point Man couldn't hear anything, but he knew the boys. He knew what they were and who they were. He never did think too much about his past and how he'd come to be, but his mother had showed him what used to be. Here, he could see himself and his younger brother standing before Harlan Wade, a man who dared to call himself their blood, who dared to consider himself a God.

Finally, Fettel was taken away for the longest time and younger Point Man spent the moment to himself, swaying back and forth on a swing. Point Man could see Alma sitting in the second swing beside him, watching her son silently.

After a long moment, Fettel returned to the playground, seemingly like that of a zombie. He glared darkly at his brother and there was a bandage wrapped tightly around his forehead. It was gushing blood and some of it trickled down his face. Suddenly, Fettel grinned widely; a mad, twisted grin and he lunged at his brother.

O

Point Man snapped out of the memory and the world around him reverted back to normal. He found himself standing back inside the hallway and Crowe turned, facing him with mild concern. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked.

Point Man seemed a little dazed, but he snapped out of it quickly and resumed his hard persona once more. He followed Manny and Stokes out of the concourse and into what appeared to be a food court and what remained of it. It was interesting, but there weren't any blood paintings here so they had reason to believe that the Cultists had never made the airport one of their bases of operations. Armacham must have gotten to it first.

"Where do you think they're hiding Beckett?" Crowe wondered, "They could be ANYWHERE."

Just then, there was a broadcast over the PA system; an Armacham soldier announcing. "ATTENTION ALL UNITS; TARGETS ARE INSIDE THE BUILDING, TRANSPORT THE SUBJECT TO THE WEST TARMAC IMMEDIATELY."

Manny let loose a laugh. "Dumbasses. They make it too easy sometimes."

"That means we don't have much time," Stokes said, "We need to move!"

The group worked their way through the Executive Club and out into the airport atrium where Armacham troops began to attack as soon as they spotted them. It was dark throughout the massive hall and the only source of light was the laser sights that trailed on them. They immediately ducked behind crates and stands to avoid being shot and the Armacham soldiers could not get a proper pinpoint on their locations in the dark.

"Hit the lights!" one of them shouted.

As the lights immediately came back on, troops began to rush into the room from the upper levels of the balcony and stairs. The sounds of their gunfire rang out, chipping away pieces of their hiding spots. It wasn't long before they would have no other place left to hide. Point Man and Manny occasionally looked out from their hiding spots to take precision shots at their attackers from above. Then, Fettel smiled down at Point Man and Crowe.

"My turn," he hissed.

He turned toward a flight of stairs and rushed for one of the Armacham soldiers, diving straight into his body. The soldier's comrades stopped firing long enough to stare at the spasming man in confusion and disbelief.

"Hey! What the fuck is wrong with you?" one of the snapped.

The possessed soldier shuddered and doubled over, stumbling down a flight of stairs before billowing red flames appeared around his body. It was seen by both Manny and Stokes and their eyes widened in stunned confusion.

"What the hell?" Manny gasped.

Forward momentum sent the possessed soldier forward as he laughed Fettel's wicked laugh.

"Time to die!" Fettel snarled.

The Armacham soldiers completely lost plot at that point; they screamed and started firing off rounds at their possessed comrade. The bullets ripped through his flesh but he still moved forward with a wry cackle. Because of the lights above, there were alternating pools of light and shadow that danced wildly about, distorting the image of the soldier's face and revealing his and Fettel's all at the same time. The sight of his face seemed to horrify one of the soldiers.

"Paxton Fettel?" he gasped.

The name was so softly breathed that it didn't reach Manny and Stokes. Fettel surged toward one of the soldiers and the man cried out in fright, helplessly raising his weapon to defend himself. It was useless as Fettel seized his wrist and twisted, bending it back so horribly, it wrought painful bone, snapping sounds through the air. The man screamed and Fettel drove his fist into his mouth, silencing the screams.

The soldiers attempted to take him out again, only this time, one of them grabbed a grenade from their belt and pulled the pin. Fettel caught this and snickered, grabbing the man's wrist tightly so he could not release the grenade. The man whimpered and looked up into those dead, pitiless eyes. Fettel grinned down at him.

"Which do you prefer? To give pain or receive it?" he whispered. "Personally, I've always been a giver."

Suddenly, the grenade erupted, shattering the glass windows above and sending the others flying backwards. The explosion obliterated the remaining Armacham soldiers into a bloody spray of gore and guts. Once the smoke cleared, Fettel was still standing calmly, smiling to the stunned Manny and Stokes. For the moment, neither one said anything. Then, Fettel smiled brightly at them and straightened, approaching slowly.

"You want to kill mother," he said, "Kill her because you're afraid."

Stokes found her voice. "I don't know who - or WHAT you are, and I don't care," she said, menacingly, "I just want to find Beckett and put an end to this madness once and for all!"

Crowe looked warily toward Fettel, wondering what he'd say to that.

"Madness?" Fettel whispered, smiling at her with macabre amusement, "You think killing a few evildoers is madness? Enslaving those who had asked for it for so many years - madness? Destroying the place of her pain; is that madness?" He slowly started to pace around her, delighting in the uncomfortable tense in her shoulders. Eventually, he stopped long enough to grin down at her, "My dear, you don't know what madness is."

Finally, Fettel lifted his head, intrigue on his features. "Hm, they're bringing in reinforcements," he murmured.

To that, a bright light shined down through the shattered glass dome and they looked up toward an enormous Goliath helicopter hovering overhead.

"Shit ... " Crowe groaned.

O

The group rushed through the stairs that led down into the loading dock. Fortunately, they didn't have to deal with the helicopter right now. Crowe could make out the sounds of Alma's voice growing ever stronger in her head.

"_... my baby ... give him back to me. Give him back to me! Give him back to me ... _"

Crowe looked up and smiled sorrowfully. Alma's tearful voice felt like a knife stabbing in her gut. "I won't let anyone hurt you, Alma," she whispered, "I promise."

Manny glared back at her. "Don't go losing it right now, man!" he warned, "We don't need this shit!"

Then, the radio filtered static conversation again.

"_Team Two isn't responding_," an Armacham soldier said.

"_FUCK_!" came the shout from another. "_Those fuckers must have already found a way inside! All right, hold position there and keep them off our asses_!"

"_Understood_."

Manny hurried toward a docking bay and pushed several bags of luggage aside. He tried to pry one of the bay doors up, but they wouldn't budge. He gave a frustrated curse and attempted to try another one.

Crowe watched them struggle to get the doors open and she could hear Alma's voice again. It was getting stronger, insistent and painful.

"_I know you're there_," Alma whispered, "_I know you can see me_."

Crowe briefly looked up toward the upper level glass - enclosed walkway where there was blood smeared all over the window. She could make out the shape of the little version of Alma Wade as she passed through. The light above it went out and then when she disappeared, it returned to its natural glow. Crowe shut her eyes, feeling an intense pressure in her head that she had never felt before. Fettel smiled and leaned forward, his breath as cold as death.

"You've seen her, haven't you?" he crooned, "She is the original. I was made from her. And I was born from her. We are separate, but we are one. We are family. Do you want to be responsible for the separation of yet another?"

Crowe shook her head with a weak moan. "No ... "

Meanwhile, while she struggled to keep her mind in check, Manny snorted with disgust and worked his way toward the controls.

"Crazy bitch, I don't need to deal with two today!" he muttered to himself.

Crowe covered her face with two hands, feeling nothing but shame in herself. Stokes regarded her coldly for a brief moment before she bent down and gave the doctor a reassuring look.

"Listen, I know you think you're saving that child because you couldn't do the same for your own," she said, "But if Alma's power grows stronger, the whole world could be fucked to hell and back. Do you understand?"

Manny's angry curse caused them to look up toward the controls. They had released electrical discharges because of his frantic beating and finally the door weakly rolled up, but it left barely enough room for them to fit through. Manny went first and then Stokes, followed by Point Man and Crowe. They were now out at the west tarmac and it had started to rain again. There were two Power Armor suits standing by and much to their amazement, a containment unit that housed Michael Beckett.

They immediately rushed to it and Stokes attempted to open the sealed door, but it wouldn't budge. She tapped on the glass. "Beckett!"

The man was leaning against it, his head hanging. He looked up at her, or rather through her.

"Go away!" he snarled.

"Beckett, it's me! It's Keira!" Stokes said, in a pleading voice, "Come on, Beckett; you have to remember me!"

Beckett crawled onto his hands and knees before rising. Stokes and the others could tell that he had been beaten a few times because most of his facial wounds appeared to be fresh and some still bled slightly. He focused his mad, furious gaze at the woman before he blinked and Stokes thought that she saw the old Beckett again.

"Keira?" Beckett said, as if he was confused, "You're alive? How'd you find me?"

Stokes smiled brightly. "I had a bit of help!" she told him, "We're here to help you!"

Beckett's eyes narrowed and he shook his head with a bitter laugh. "You can't help me. No one can help me." His mad voice changed and he sounded piteous now. "Go away and stay away before you die like the rest of them."

Crowe looked at Point Man and Fettel and she walked to the containment door before raising her gun and beating the control pad. The doors roared open and she bent down to the man. Beckett scowled at her.

"Who are you?" he snapped.

Crowe studied his face briefly. "I'm Doctor Annette Crowe, I'm here to help you," she told him, "We need to find Alma Wade. You know where she is and you know how to get to her."

Beckett smiled and it wasn't at all friendly. "They told me what you want to do to her," he hissed, "I can't allow that. She chose me, you know. She's mine."

Manny groaned. "Jesus Christ, man!" he snapped, "Do you know who you sound like?"

Stokes scowled and nodded her head. "So you're going to give in and forget that this crazy bitch killed our friends?" she snapped, "What about Top? What about Redd and Keegan? What about Fox? Did you forget about what happened to them?"

Beckett's mind was a mess of chaos and he saw images and flashbacks, seeing the faces of his friends moments before their death. He shut his eyes tight and gritted his teeth, shaking his head rapidly before relaxing with a moan of anguish and despair. For the moment, it appeared that there was nothing but shame, despair and hatred in his eyes now. But when he looked up and saw Fettel and Point Man, his look became absolutely murderous.

"You!" he snarled.

Before anyone could stop him, Beckett surged at Point Man and seized him by the throat with two hands. Point Man grabbed him by his throat and the two men spent the moment grappling and trying to knock the other over. Manny attempted to peel Beckett from Point Man and Fettel was laughing mirthfully at the sight. Crowe tried to pull Point Man aside, but because of his inhuman strength, it was nearly impossible.

"You did this to me, you son of a bitch!" Beckett shrieked.

Point Man grabbed Beckett's face with one hand and pressed his thumb into the man's eye, causing him to shriek and release him. He fellt backwards onto his ass and Stokes and Manny fell with him. Crowe frowned down at the desperate man as he tried to attack Point Man again.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" she demanded.

Beckett snarled like a rabid animal. "I'm in this because of that piece of shit!" he shouted, "I was tortured, raped and put on display because of him!"

Crowe furrowed her brow. "What?" she said, "What are you talking about?"

Stokes looked at her and slow realization began to appear on her face. "They were never looking for Alma," she realized, "At least, not at first. Aristide mentioned that in her notes. They were looking for the first prototype ... "

Crowe grimaced and glanced up at Point Man. She opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of SAVAGE's voice filled the air.

"I'm afraid that no one is going anywhere."

They turned and noticed SAVAGE standing a few feet away, his Penetrator weapon trailed on them. They started to raise their weapons to kill, but SAVAGE chuckled quietly and aimed his at Beckett's head.

"Ah, ah, ah, there's no need for that," he told them. "Forgive me, my friends, but I think you've caused me enough grief for one day."

Crowe scowled at him. "You can't stop all of us."

"Oh?" SAVAGE's mechanically altered voice filled with amusement. "Don't you find this rather interesting, Annette?"

Crowe frowned. "What?"

"You're not dead yet."

Their weapons slowly lowered save for Point Man; he wasn't going to fall prey to such words.

"If I wanted to kill you, Annette, I would have put a nail through your head right now," SAVAGE purred, "But ... " He chuckled now. "That isn't what you're afraid of, now is it?" His attention turned to Beckett. "Michael Beckett is only part of all of this; that one - " He gestured toward Point Man. " - is the other. But you are a part of it as well. A small part, but you share a role nonetheless. Why do you think I wanted them to take you alive?"

Crowe furrowed her brow in confusion. She still wasn't adding any of it up.

SAVAGE chuckled and slowly lowered his weapon. He dropped it to the ground and the others watched, confused. SAVAGE slowly reached up and began to remove several tubes from his mask, letting loose a stream of oxygen. He reached over his head and slowly pulled the helmet off of his face. It wasn't the face of anyone they recognized and certainly not the most attractive either. He had tattered lips and wrinkled, scarred flesh and his hair was thin and gray. His eyes were pale white orbs of lifelessness; the mask no doubt aided him in his sight in some way. The only one who reacted at all to the sight was Crowe.

"Dad?" she said.

SAVAGE smiled at her and it made his hideous features look even worse than before. His voice, without the modulator sounded heavily British. "Harlan Wade and I started the project," he told them, "Nicholas Crowe was a name I knew I had to hide, especially after the Replicas began hunting down anyone involved in Origin."

Fettel smirked coldly. "Ah, a survivor," he purred, "Taking the coward's way out."

"I don't understand," Crowe whispered, her voice shaken, "I thought you were dead."

SAVAGE smiled with a laugh before fitting his helmet back over his face. He attached the proper tubes together before straightening and slowly raising his hand.

"Annette, you can stand down and surrender," he told her, "Or you can choose a gruesome death. Either way, Alma is the future of this world. Once we gain control of her again, you'll understand. It's your choice. It's all your choices. Make the right one."

Manny snarled and brought his weapon up. "My answer is 'fuck you'!" he spat.

SAVAGE shook his head. "Such a waste ... "

Just then, in a burst of blue light, something streaked through the air and appeared before them. It multiplied several times and took the shapes of literally hundreds of Armacham soldiers. It was almost as if they had appeared out of nowhere to this location by some ungodly means. SAVAGE raised his hand, a commander to his troops.

"Crucify them!" he commanded. "But leave my daughter to me."

O

It was madness throughout the tarmac as Stokes and her team attempted to fend off the Armacham soldiers. SAVAGE worked his way into the EPA power suit sitting in recharge mode and once he climbed in, it whirred to life.

Stokes had taken cover behind the remains of an airliner when she noticed the machine coming to life.

"Uh, Manny?" she said, "We're going to have a problem here!"

Beckett was shaking as he fired off rounds from his freshly acquired Andra FD-99 Submachine Gun. His eyes flared with murder and hatred and he mumbled nonsensical words with every second and every moment of killing. Manny ducked to avoid several shots from the EPA as it literally shredded his cover of crates. He winced and shouted across the tarmac to Stokes and Point Man who were hiding behind the airliner.

"Dammit!" he shouted, "There's a chopper across the tarmac, but we'll never reach it!"

SAVAGE's cruel voice filled the air. "Right you are," he hissed, "This airport will be your grave!"

Armacham soldiers were also shredded alive as he unleashed another shower of bullets from the massive turrets mounted on the power suit's arms. Crowe peered over across the tarmac toward a smaller PA suit that she had noticed when they first arrived. She shut her eyes tightly and looked at Manny briefly in silence. He didn't know exactly what she was thinking before she bolted from her cover and made a mad dash for the suit.

"Fuck! Are you fucking insane?" Manny shouted after her.

Stokes caught it too. "Manny, cover her!"

The shadow of SAVAGE's EPA loomed over them; he failed to notice Crowe as she climbed into the power suit. It's armor closed in front of her and a digital readout of the area in front of her appeared on the screens within.

"Hey!" she shouted.

SAVAGE turned in his suit and laughed coldly. "What are you doing?" he snapped, "Don't be a fool, Annette."

Crowe looked down at Stokes and spoke through her radio. "I'll hold him off; you run for the chopper!"

"Doctor Crowe, that's suicide!" Stokes cried, in her own.

Crowe shut her eyes briefly with a sad smile. "Don't worry about me," she told her, "Just go!"

SAVAGE's missile launchers opened. "You don't have the stomach," he hissed, "You were always an intelligent scientist; an asset to the corporation. When it came to the hard decisions, however; you couldn't do it!"

And with that, he fired.

Crowe's machine sent out proximity warnings to which she eluded barely. The missiles took out a good portion of the airliners around them and she stumbled onto her side. While the two fought, Stokes led the rest of her team through the chaos, taking shots at several Armacham soldiers who remained.

"Yeah, sucker!" Manny shouted, with glee, "There's a lot more where that came from!"

SAVAGE looked back when he saw the group rushing toward the chopper. "No!" he shouted.

He turned to face them and that was when Crowe surged at him, slamming her smaller, metal shell against his. She wrapped one of her metal arms around his, forcing him to turn unless he wanted to lose function of his weapon.

"You'll damn the world for her?" SAVAGE spat, furiously.

Crowe chuckled and shook her head. "What we did to them, we've damned ourselves already ... "

SAVAGE bellowed in fury and swung his weapon arm, slamming it into her side. Crowe tumbled across the tarmac and the resulting crash sent warning lights and signs flashing across the screens of her suit. She felt wet warmth tricking down her forehead and knew that she was bleeding. The screens flickered and static spat out from the joints of her suit.

Stokes and the others climbed into the helicopter and she watched in horror as SAVAGE leveled his missile launchers at his daughter.

"CROWE!" she shouted.

SAVAGE snarled at Crowe as she staggered to her feet. "You're weak, just like your mother!" he spat.

The missiles released and Crowe gave a fierce, wild scream and charged for her father. The missiles trailed toward her, but as she advanced closer and closer, SAVAGE's computers sent out proximity warnings.

"Annette, no!" he shouted, horror - stricken.

Crowe dove at him, just as the missiles made contact. The resulting explosion released a shockwave powerful enough to throw Stokes and the others off of their feet. It completely obliterated SAVAGE's EPA and sent Crowe flying back into an airliner. Once the dust settled, Stokes looked up in horror at the sight of Crowe's PA, punctured clear through the center with a piece of jagged metal. She quickly rushed over and noticed that most of the front had been melted away.

"Doctor Crowe?" Stokes cried, "Doctor Crowe!"

She saw her then; Crowe's stomach area had been completely pierced by the metal. She was shuddering in agony, her eyes wide. Blood gushed down her chin from her gasping, moaning mouth. Her cries came out frantic, agonized and tortured, as if the world didn't have enough air.

"Keira ... " she groaned. "Please, go ... "

Stokes shook her head. "Doctor, you - "

She pressed a hand to Crowe's stomach, despite how useless it was. Crowe's moans reached a higher note and she met Stokes' eyes with her own tear-streaked ones.

"I'm - sorry." she gurgled. Her final words came out terrified and loud. "I'm scared - I'm scared ... "

Finally, Crowe's body went still and her head hung. It caused a thin stream of blood to gush from her parted lips. It was such a pitiful, awful sight; her eyes staring into nothing and her chest slick with blood. Fettel just smiled calmly.

"Poor Annette," he murmured, "Well, that's what happens to those who fight it."

Stokes shut her eyes briefly, pained for a moment before she turned to her group. "We need to move."

O

The helicopter carrying the group disappeared into the sky, leaving what remained of that terrible battle. Crowe's lifeless body and the remains of the suits and Armacham soldiers. Then, bloody footprints slowly worked their way toward Crowe's body and disappeared completely.

_Everything was illuminated with an amber light._

_Then, there was Alma's tree and swing._

_After a white flash, a child Annette Crowe sat quietly beside another tree and hummed a happy tune to herself before she looked up and saw a little Alma Wade standing there. For the longest time, they said and did nothing. Then, Alma reached out with one hand. Crowe carefully took it and she saw images that flashed by of Alma's horrible, suffered life and the loss of her two children; Paxton Fettel and Point Man. She saw Harlan Wade standing in the background of the chaos, smiling with contempt._

_"You'll be a God among men ... "_

_His voice disappeared through a horrible scream, followed by sobbing and crying._

_"Take her back to the vault."_

_Then, the world changed to Harlan overseeing Nicholas Crowe's experimentation on Crowe's mother; they pierced needles through her eyes and she screamed as she was bombarded with horrible, supernatural imagery._

_"It wasn't my fault ... "_

_Nicholas turned to Harlan with a scowl. "Alma's dangerous. You knew it would come to this. We both knew."_

_Harlan scowled back at him. "I know what I have to do, Nicholas."_

_The images changed again and this time, they were of two boys; Point Man and Fettel. They were playing happily in their own little world while Harlan and Nicholas watched them silently, contemplating what to do next._

_"Your child would no doubt be of some use," Harlan mused, "Perhaps we can introduce her to Paxton ... "_

_Nicholas snarled. "No. My daughter will not be used for your sick breeding experiments, Harlan!"_

_The images changed once more and now, it was of Nicholas losing his mind and screaming as he destroyed the labs and everything in them. Lying on a medical table was a figure covered with blood - soaked cloth. A woman's hand draped over the edge, dripping with blood._

_Finally, there were more chaotic images before they finally stopped to a child Alma. She slowly smiled, wickedness in her eyes before they closed._

_"They will all die ... "_


	7. Interval 06: Perdition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "And on her forehead was written a name of mystery:
> 
> "Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations."
> 
> \- Revelation 17:5

O

"Still Island..."

The helicopter slowly made its way toward the nightmarish storm that hovered over the former Armacham facility. As they drew closer and closer, watching with uncertainty and fear, they equally felt a pressure in the air; an intense hatred and pain. It was so powerful, even Stokes and Manny felt the change without even being psychically attuned to Alma's influence. Beckett was shaking with fear and anger, torn between two wills; his own and Alma's. Fettel seemed excited, however. He leaned toward his brother.

"Do you feel her power?" he whispered, "Do you feel how strong she has become?"

Manny shuddered as they drew closer to the island and he slowly began to realize that what littered the shores were not empty sand, but remains of various air transports. "Fuck me ... " he whispered, stunned.

They landed silently onto a bare spot on the shore and climbed out, their weapons at the ready. Manny took a moment to investigate a fallen gunship. He scaled around it to check for insignias and noticed the Armacham symbol, scratched and tattered in the hull of the ship.

"Shit, these fuckers tried to get here," he said, "I don't think they stood a chance."

Point Man studied the terrain briefly before he locked eyes with Stokes. She frowned up at him. "You're with us, aren't you?" she asked him, "This bitch isn't your mother anymore. She's something else. She's ... a monster."

Point Man looked away, deep in thought. Fettel approached with a disgusted look.

"There they go again, putting the blame on mother for something that THEY did to her!" he snapped, "It's the same everywhere you go, brother." He looked at Point Man with an almost sympathetic look that could be confused with irritation. "What are you thinking? Do you really want to kill mother and the child? Our new sibling? A being who had nothing to do with any of this?" Fettel snorted at his constant silence. "Will you kill your own kin once again to save these weaklings?"

Stokes gestured for the group to follow her. "Let's move," she ordered, "Stay together and shoot enemy's on sight. I don't want any more surprises."

Correction: She didn't want anyone else to die.

They made their way up toward the facility and they realized that its appearance had all but degraded completely; the walls appeared to be moving all around them and seemed to be sticky with a disgusting, damp tissue that almost looked like blood. It was a nightmare of flesh, fire and shadow; a living monument to Alma's pain and hatred. The air seemed heavy with these emotions and the smells were just sickening.

"Good God, look at this place!" Stokes exclaimed.

"I feel like I'm in hell..." Manny whispered.

Point Man looked around and he noticed Crowe's blood apparition standing by a ventilation shaft; the massive blood stain on her stomach and the gushing blood on her forehead was an unpleasant reminder of what had happened to her back at the airport. She stared back at him with am empty, yet sorrowful look before disappearing into a puff of black ash like the rest of the apparitions were known to do. Her parting words came out in a desperate plea.

"You can't," she whispered, "You can't do this."

The group moved forward and Beckett suddenly doubled over with a groan of pain, holding his head. Stokes bent to his side.

"Beckett!"

He winced and gritted his teeth, struggling against the will of Alma and his own mind. He blinked and could see two apparitions staring him down, hard. Fox and Griffin. They were covered in blood and their eyes were cold and accusing.

"You're going to forget about us?" Fox whispered with contempt, "What about my daughter? What about my wife?"

Griffin shook his head with dismay. "I really hate crybabies, Beckett," he snapped, "You gotta do this for the rest of us."

The apparitions disappeared and around the group, Replica containers were suddenly opening.

O

The Replica's emerging from their containers had no masks, but they also appeared to look different than what Beckett remembered when he had arrived at the facility so long ago. Their armor appeared to be rotting into their flesh and their distorted faces were filled with razor - sharp teeth and flaring red eyes. Their nostrils were pulled back in grotesque fashions that made their faces appear demonic rather than human.

"Holy shit!" Manny cried, stunned, "I never thought that they'd get uglier!"

The Replica soldiers poured out after them, armed with their weapons of choice; some wielded shotguns while others brandished sub machine guns. They started opening fire on Stokes and her group to which they retaliated with much difficulty.

"Kill them!" a Replica soldier screamed, his voice horribly distorted.

Point Man's gaze was as cold and pitiless as ice. With a snarl, a Replica charged at him, moving at near inhuman speed. Point Man drew out his pistols and fired, taking out the Replica in a single shot. Then, he fired in multiple directions. Several of his shots contacted the skulls of the Replica's with expert skill. Manny was behind him, wrestling with a Replica soldier. He drew out his combat knife and cut the soldier across the face, earning a furious hiss.

Manny smirked nastily and tilted his head at the gushing slash mark on the Replica soldier's face. The soldier snarled and showed his sharp teeth. "That's a sexy look for you, fuckhead!" he hissed. "Maybe I'll give you another to match!"

The Replica bellowed with fury and dove at him. The tackle knocked Manny to the floor and the Replica started delivering punch after punch to his face. Manny reached up and grabbed him by the head, twisting until he snapped his neck. The soldier collapsed lifelessly on Manny's body and he grimaced in pain before pausing to sniff the Replica. He winced in disgust at the horrible smell and shoved him off.

"Stinking ass freaks!" he spat.

Stokes fired her weapon into a Replica to which it punched a fist - sized hole through the soldier's chest. She continued firing and then the click of her empty magazine made her cast aside her useless weapon and rush toward the fallen Replica soldiers to seize one of their own. She made her way toward a set of double doors that led to a stairway and looked back at the others.

"Come on! Move it!" she shouted. "Hurry!"

The group quickly followed her with the remainder of the Replica giving chase.

"Don't lose sight of them!" a Replica shouted.

They poured into the double doors and Manny lingered behind. He smirked and rushed for a fallen Replica soldier lying on a pulley surrounded by several tanks filled with explosive compounds. He smirked and aimed his gun directly at them.

"Manny, what the hell are you doing?" she demanded, "COME ON!"

Manny squeezed one eye shut and waited until the proper moment when the Replica were close enough ...

Then, he pulled the trigger.

The tanks erupted and sent both live and dead Replica flying through the air. Manny immediately ducked behind the double doors as the blast lurched him from his spot. Stokes helped him up and laughed softly.

"Nice one, Manny," she remarked.

Fettel shook his head with dismay. "The woman is naive," he muttered, "There is no doubt thousands more waiting for us."

"We need to get to the Vault," Stokes continued, "Alma's probably still there."

Point Man shook his head and gestured toward the sticky, disgusting walls around them. Stokes frowned at the gesture and immediately caught on to what he was trying to say. "No. We haven't been here in some time, so we have to go by whatever memory we have," she explained, "Beckett, Manny and I will have to work our way around the perimeter because I can guarantee that most of the elevators and power's down everywhere."

That was true; it was difficult working their way around the facility with only the use of their flashlights.

"So how do we get through this place?" Manny asked.

Stokes thought about it before she reached to take her radio. She tuned it a few times before looking up at him. "We'll split up into two's," she said, "Two of us will take one half of the facility while the other two work the other half. When we find the Vault, we'll make contact."

Manny nodded. "Okay. So who's going with who?"

"I'll go with Beckett," Stokes told him, "You go with him." She gestured to Point Man.

"Gotcha."

The two teams split up and walked in separate directions. Fettel drifted calmly at Point Man's side.

"What will you do if we find her first, brother?" Fettel asked.

As always, his brother was silent.

O

"_They left her in darkness. They left her to die_."

Redd Jankowski's bloody apparition dissolves into ash as Beckett and Stokes passed him standing behind closed door, watching them coldly through the circular window. His chest and stomach were gushing blood and sick, green fluid; a horrid image of the day that Beckett had found him dead.

Stokes looked at her friend worriedly. "Beckett, what happened in there anyway?" she asked, softly.

Beckett looked at her and his gaze was cold, hard and tormented. "I saw Keegan," he told her, "Only ... It wasn't Keegan anymore. He was ... " He paused in his words and looked momentarily pained. " ... He was insane. I fought him off before he begged me to kill him."

Stokes looked stunned. "Beckett ... "

"_You're a fucking bitch_."

Beckett paused and stared down a corridor. The failing lights above seemed to twitch on and off. Each time they did, it appeared that a shape was getting closer and closer. Beckett recognized the color and design of an ATC uniform soaked in blood. Beckett shook his head with a moan and Stokes watched him, confused by the man's fright. She couldn't see anything - Alma must have been showing Beckett something that only he could see - something that was on his conscience alone.

The apparition's head was lowered and his clothes torn and bloody, slowly coming up toward the man. His movements were jerky, like that of a marionette. The apparition's limbs made sick, disgusting creaking noises with each twitch.

Beckett recognized the distorted voice of the apparition.

"Vanek, no ... " he whispered, "You're dead."

Vanek laughed dryly. He still didn't lift his head up. "_A fucking pussy like you forgot me already_?"

The soft dripping sounds that followed made Beckett glance down briefly. There was blood dripping down at Vanek's feet.

"_Look! Did you forget about this_?"

Beckett lifted his eyes and they slowly widened in horror as Vanek raised his head. The lower half of his face was missing; his entire jawbone was gone and his tongue hung limply on his chest. He laughed dryly, speaking in a manner that should have been impossible.

"_Forget about the face you fucking blew off_?" he snarled.

Beckett gave a high - pitched scream that reached Manny and Point Man who were walking through the medical corridors. They had taken down many Replica soldiers in their path and the entire time, Point Man had made no indication that he wanted to associate with Manny.

"What are you going to do when we find Alma?" Manny asked him.

Point Man gave him a particularly unfriendly look, but didn't respond. They walked through the morgue and Point Man suddenly looked to his left and Manny disappeared in a burst of blood and gore. He knew that it wasn't real and that Alma was toying with his mind yet again. He watched the room flash briefly with horrible images of gore, body parts and shuddering bodies in body bags. It was momentary and vanished just as quick as it had come.

Just then, apparitions were standing in the room; victims of Alma's and Armacham's wrath. Some of which he didn't recognize and others he did. They were whispering over and over at the same time, words he could not make out immediately. He could see Harlan Wade standing among them, bloody and smiling. His glasses were smashed and dangling on his crooked nose. He practically looked insane, despite his death.

"_She was a very disturbed child. Terrible, debilitating nightmares. Hallucinations. Hysteria. She never had a chance at a normal life," he whispered, "You want to destroy her, boy ... Don't you think she's suffered enough?_"

Point Man frowned at him, not swayed by the presence of the ghost.

"_Don't run from your past, boy_," Harlan whispered, "_It will forever haunt you_."

He began to dissolve into a skeleton, just as Point Man remembered happening to him when he was alive. He looked around and the other apparitions began to dissolve in the same fashion, falling into a pool of bloody bones.

The illusion ended and Point Man was looking to the side at Manny, who was in one piece.

"What?" the man asked, frowning.

O

Fighting through hellhounds and Replicas left Beckett feeling weary about the end.

Did he really want to do this again?

Did he really want to face her again?

Stokes and Beckett made their way through Alma's compound where her tree and swing still remained. Beckett could still see the same doll lying on the ground, exactly in the same spot where he had last seen it. Alma watched him calmly on the swing in her child form. Her eyes looked heavy and sad this time, a far cry from her usual hateful stare.

"_Please, don't go ..._ " she whispered, "_Don't leave me_."

Ahead of him, Stokes was already making her way over the gated fence. Manny's voice filled the air from her radio. "_Uh, lieutenant? We have a lot of movement on our end! A lot of those fuckheads are waking up and we don't have enough ammo to deal with this shit_!"

"Manny! If you can, don't face them!" Stokes warned, failing to notice Beckett no longer behind her, "I want you out of there!"

The sound of gunshots echoed back at her from the radio and Manny's fierce screams. Stokes' eyes widened in horror and she looked back, seeing Beckett on his hands and knees, sobbing quietly with frustration and anger.

Stokes immediately climbed back over the fence and moved to his side, bending down. "Beckett, come on!" she begged, "Don't give in! Fight her!"

"I can't ... "

"You have to!"

"I FUCKING CAN'T!" Beckett shrieked, glaring at her with a horrible, monstrous glow in his eyes.

Stokes looked stunned for the longest time before she held him close and snarled at the darkness. Luckily, he didn't fight her hold. "He doesn't love you, do you hear me?" she shouted, "He doesn't LOVE YOU!"

The air temperature changed and the sound of Alma's piercing scream filled the air.

She didn't sound angry.

She sounded absolutely enraged.

"_Give him back_!" she screamed.

Behind Stokes, a blackness was slowly lowering itself toward her from the top of the tree. Formless at first, but it started flowing and moving like that of a shape draped with black silk. Drifting down until the shadowy "head" was only inches from Beckett's now terrified face. The head turned, rotating toward Stokes. She blinked in stunned disbelief and opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Two eyes stared back at her, disembodied and filled with an intense rage.

Meanwhile, Manny and Point Man were making their way toward the Vault. It felt as if energy itself crackled all around them. Manny felt sick to his stomach and nearly fell to his knees, but Point Man seized him by the scruff of his vest and forced him back to his feet.

"Thanks ... " Manny grumbled.

The two men entered the Vault and were stunned at what they saw.

It had been completely altered to resemble a living, breathing womb. Sitting in a makeshift throne was the figure of Alma Wade herself, body swollen from pregnancy. Her arms were covered in blood and her long hair was draped over her face and pooling across the floor at her feet. Her hand and toe nails were frighteningly long and her eyes were filled with hatred and pain. She regarded both men like a mighty queen surveying the weak.

There was nothing of the victim that she had once been in those eyes. Her nailed hand roved delicately over her swollen belly.

"Fuck," Manny said, shocked.


	8. Interval 07: Revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "You have a choice. Live or die. Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice."
> 
> -Chuck Palahniuk

O

For the longest time, nothing happened.

Alma was breathing heavily, obviously in pain from her pregnancy, but focused intensely on the two men standing there. Her gaze was hard at Manny, but when she looked at Point Man, her eyes softened briefly before she reached out with one hand. She obviously wanted him to come to her. Point Man felt himself tugged to go to her, yearning to finally feel some kind of love in his life; but he also felt strange to feel these feelings toward someone he hardly knew.

She was his mother, however.

Fettel drifted quietly toward Alma, smiling. "Mother, I'm here," he said, gently.

Alma looked up at him and her gaze softened as well; it occured to Point Man that she loved them both, regardless of what Fettel had done in the past. Alma was only a monster because the rest of the world chose to see her as such.

Manny whispered sidelong to Point Man. "Come on, man," he hissed, "We gotta do this!"

Alma's eyes leered on him and she made a sound that resembled a fierce animal cry. She raised her hand and Manny was suddenly lifted off of the floor with a wail of shock and pain. Alma studied the wriggling, moaning human for the longest time, as if she was fascinated with his tormented struggles. Beckett and Stokes emerged into the Vault and saw the horrible sight. Alma just smiled briefly at them, daring them to try anything.

"Manny!" Stokes shouted.

Alma smiled with contempt and flung her hand to one side. At the psychic command, Manny went flying in the direction of her hand and struck the side of the wall, hard. He slid down to the floor with a weak, shuddering groan and was still. Point Man watched the scene with horror and shock, but Fettel laughed with macabre amusement.

"Such weakness!" he hissed, "Brother, come with us! You belong with your family!"

Point Man looked back at Stokes who was kneeling before Manny, trying to revive him. Then, he looked at Beckett, who seemed entranced and horrified at the same time. The man was holding his sub machine gun, aimed right at Alma. She met Beckett's gaze and looked hurt and furious at once by his decision. Fettel snorted cruelly.

"As expected," he snarled, "You're so human!"

He dove at Beckett and the man grimaced and focused with his mind. A psychic blast sent Fettel's soul veering backwards with a shout and Beckett doubled over with a sharp cry of pain, gripping his head with one hand. Fettel recovered quickly from the assault and snarled with fury, charging for him again. This time, Point Man moved between them and seized his brother in an impossibly strong grip. Both brothers started fighting one another, snarling while one attempted to overpower the other. Stokes watched the scene in horror before she looked up and noticed that several hundred hellhounds were slowly making their way down the length of the pulsing walls, snarling right toward their prey.

"Shit!" she cried, "Beckett!"

He looked up and spotted the creatures, moments before they attacked. Both Stokes and Beckett's guns went off in different directions and Alma watched this with concern and fury. Then, she clenched her teeth with a moan as her belly seemed to move and twitch; her soon - to - be born child was nearing close to birth. Her hands protectively went to her stomach and she opened her mouth, letting out a high - pitched scream.

An uncontrollable psychic blast of energy yanked Point Man and Fettel toward their mother in a wave of blinding light. It caused Stokes and Beckett to shield their eyes from it and when they looked again, the Vault had closed.

O

"That's what I love about you, my dear brother! So predictable!"

Point Man found himself standing in a parched, dry world and the winds roared violently, nearly blinding him. Alma's tree was there as was her swing and the sky was a terrifying, fiery red that consumed everything within his vision. Standing among the horrifying chaos was Fettel himself and he looked horrible; his face and body appeared to be decayed and corrupted, but in absolute control over his abilities here.

How unusual.

"It's sad it has to come to this, brother," he said, "We could have been Gods over them, but instead you choose death."

In the back of his head, Point Man could hear the sounds of his mother moaning in pain. He pulled away as he focused on his brother as shadowed forms of Replica soldiers moved toward him, armed with guns. Alma was known to make her images solid and take shape, but with her pregnancy and near birthing, she couldn't focus to make them take form. Yet that still didn't make them any less dangerous. Point Man started taking fire on them; they were easily taken down, shattering into particles with horrible screams. Fettel surged toward him and slammed into his brother, grabbing him by his jaw and forcing him to look up at him.

"Mother loved you!" he spat, "And you turn your back on her for that little bitch and her soldier toy!"

Point Man grabbed his brother by the face and pushed him off. He climbed back to his feet and watched as Fettel disappeared with a dull laugh. Point Man looked around for him, trying to pinpoint his location. At the horizon, flames began to appear. Among the flames, shadowed, distorted images of the hellhounds jumped out and lunged right for him, howling for blood. Fettel's horrible laugh echoed around him as he took shots at the creatures.

"All of them are dead because of you, brother ... " Fettel whispered, from behind him, "You could have joined us. You could have spared them all!" Point Man felt pressure in his chest and he looked down, seeing Fettel's hands passing through his body. His brother's lips were close to his ear, snarling out his next words. "You're going to die here. Mother despises traitors!"

Point Man could see literally thousands of memories buzzing through his head like a television screen in fast forward. His life from birth to his enslavement in the Origin Facility. His training and recruitment into F.E.A.R.. His time and romantic relationship with Jin. The chaos that had transpired when he was sent out to eliminate Paxton Fettel. The death of his comrades and his loss of Jin - who knew where she was - and his time of surviving in Auburn.

Everything Fettel laid bare before him.

"Mother's disappointed, brother," Fettel sneered, "And quite frankly, so am I."

Quite frankly, he was getting sick of hearing about Mother all of the time.

Point Man whirled and grabbed Fettel by his throat. The winds around them seemed to intensify and he ignored them as he pressed the end of his gun to Fettel's head and squeezed several rounds into him, over and over. With each shot, the world around them seemed to tremble and spasm, almost as if it were a living thing in pain.

Finally, Point Man found himself leaving one hell and returning to another. He was standing in front of his mother again inside the Vault. Stokes and Beckett had done quite a good job on holding back Alma's monsters.

Alma appeared to be in the worst pain imaginable, but she also seemed defiant to it. She hissed and groaned, clutching her stomach in agony. So pitiful. Point Man almost felt pity seeing her like that and then he remembered that she wasn't just a terrible monster that had been made by Armacham. She wasn't just that sick thing that everyone had worked hard to create and other to destroy. She wasn't just some weapon.

She was still his mother.

He knelt down before her and his eyes held a silent question to her. Alma stared silently back before a weak smile lit her lips. She nodded once and it was barely noticed by Beckett and Stokes. They watched the scene with unease and confusion.

It took a moment before Point Man was holding a new born infant in his arms. It was quiet, slightly covered in blood and birthing fluid. Point Man cradled the infant in his arms and a light smile touched his lips. Alma watched the scene with an exhausted look on her face before she weakly smiled back. Point Man met her gaze and a glimmer of concern touched his lips before he watched her disappear into black ash.

O

The helicopter passed over the waters and above, the sky was slowly starting to reveal the rays of the sun again. Stokes was flying the helicopter while Point Man, Manny and Beckett stared down at the infant cradled in his arms. Beckett seemed a little wary of the sight, but Point Man was perfectly content.

"This is a mistake, you know," Beckett whispered, "It'll end up like the rest of you."

Point Man ignored him, gently rubbing his fingers against the tiny infant's head. It was quiet, cooing softly. Its eyes were dark, nearly black like his mother's. A small bit of black hair covered its sticky head. Overall, it didn't seem so horrible.

"I don't know how we lived through that ... " Stokes said, shaken.

Manny sighed and shook his head. "No. Not all of us."

"What about Alma? What happened to her?" Stokes wondered, looking back at Point Man.

Point Man pondered this for the longest time. He closed his eyes and then he could hear Fettel's voice in his head.

"_She's still here. And so am I._"

Finally, the infant let out a fierce wail

NO ACTUAL DELTA FORCE OPERATIVES WERE HARMED IN THIS PRODUCTION. BUT A FEW DEMONS, REPLICA AND ARMACHAM OPERATIVES MAY HAVE BEEN HORRIBLY KILLED IN THE ATTEMPT.

THE END


	9. Interval 07: Revelation - Alternate Ending

For the longest time, nothing happened.

Alma was breathing heavily, obviously in pain from her pregnancy, but focused intensely on the two men standing there. Her gaze was hard at Manny, but when she looked at Point Man, her eyes softened briefly before she reached out with one hand. She obviously wanted him to come to her. Point Man felt himself tugged to go to her, yearning to finally feel some kind of love in his life; but he also felt strange to feel these feelings toward someone he hardly knew.

She was his mother, however.

Fettel drifted quietly toward Alma, smiling. "Mother, I'm here," he said, gently.

Alma looked up at him and her gaze softened as well; it occurred to Point Man that she loved them both, regardless of what Fettel had done in the past. Alma was only a monster because the rest of the world chose to see her as such.

Manny whispered sidelong to Point Man. "Come on, man," he hissed, "We gotta do this!"

Alma's eyes leered on him and she made a sound that resembled a fierce animal cry. She raised her hand and Manny was suddenly lifted off of the floor with a wail of shock and pain. Alma studied the wriggling, moaning human for the longest time, as if she was fascinated with his tormented struggles. Beckett and Stokes emerged into the Vault and saw the horrible sight. Alma just smiled briefly at them, daring them to try anything.

"Manny!" Stokes shouted.

Alma smiled with contempt and flung her hand to one side. At the psychic command, Manny went flying in the direction of her hand and struck the side of the wall, hard. He slid down to the floor with a weak, shuddering groan and was still. Point Man watched the scene with horror and shock, but Fettel laughed with macabre amusement.

"Such weakness!" he hissed, "Brother, come with us! You belong with your family!"

Point Man looked back at Stokes who was kneeling before Manny, trying to revive him. Then, he looked at Beckett, who seemed entranced and horrified at the same time. The man was holding his sub machine gun, aimed right at Alma. She met Beckett's gaze and looked hurt and furious at once by his decision. Fettel snorted cruelly.

"As expected," he snarled, "You're so human!"

He dove at Beckett and the man grimaced and focused with his mind. A psychic blast sent Fettel's soul veering backwards with a shout and Beckett doubled over with a sharp cry of pain, gripping his head with one hand. Fettel recovered quickly from the assault and snarled with fury, charging for him again. This time, Point Man moved between them and seized his brother in an impossibly strong grip. Both brothers started fighting one another, snarling while one attempted to overpower the other. Stokes watched the scene in horror before she looked up and noticed that several hundred hellhounds were slowly making their way down the length of the pulsing walls, snarling right toward their prey.

"Shit!" she cried, "Beckett!"

He looked up and spotted the creatures, moments before they attacked. Both Stokes and Beckett's guns went off in different directions and Alma watched this with concern and fury. Then, she clenched her teeth with a moan as her belly seemed to move and twitch; her soon - to - be born child was nearing close to birth. Her hands protectively went to her stomach and she opened her mouth, letting out a high - pitched scream.

An uncontrollable psychic blast of energy yanked Point Man and Fettel toward their mother in a wave of blinding light. It caused Stokes and Beckett to shield their eyes from it and when they looked again, the Vault had closed.

O

"That's what I love about you, my dear brother! So predictable!"

Point Man found himself standing in a parched, dry world and the winds roared violently, nearly blinding him. Alma's tree was there as was her swing and the sky was a terrifying, fiery red that consumed everything within his vision. Standing among the horrifying chaos was Fettel himself and he looked horrible; his face and body appeared to be decayed and corrupted, but in absolute control over his abilities here.

How unusual.

"It's sad it has to come to this, brother," he said, "We could have been Gods over them, but instead you choose death."

In the back of his head, Point Man could hear the sounds of his mother moaning in pain. He pulled away as he focused on his brother as shadowed forms of Replica soldiers moved toward him, armed with guns. Alma was known to make her images solid and take shape, but with her pregnancy and near birthing, she couldn't focus to make them take form. Yet that still didn't make them any less dangerous. Point Man started taking fire on them; they were easily taken down, shattering into particles with horrible screams. Fettel surged toward him and slammed into his brother, grabbing him by his jaw and forcing him to look up at him.

"Mother loved you!" he spat, "And you turn your back on her for that little bitch and her soldier toy!"

Point Man grabbed his brother by the face and pushed him off. He climbed back to his feet and watched as Fettel disappeared with a dull laugh. Point Man looked around for him, trying to pinpoint his location. At the horizon, flames began to appear. Among the flames, shadowed, distorted images of the hellhounds jumped out and lunged right for him, howling for blood. Fettel's horrible laugh echoed around him as he took shots at the creatures.

"All of them are dead because of you, brother ... " Fettel whispered, from behind him, "You could have joined us. You could have spared them all!" Point Man felt pressure in his chest and he looked down, seeing Fettel's hands passing through his body. His brother's lips were close to his ear, snarling out his next words. "You're going to die here. Mother despises traitors!"

Point Man could see literally thousands of memories buzzing through his head like a television screen in fast forward. His life from birth to his enslavement in the Origin Facility. His training and recruitment into F.E.A.R.. His time and romantic relationship with Jin. The chaos that had transpired when he was sent out to eliminate Paxton Fettel. The death of his comrades and his loss of Jin - who knew where she was - and his time of surviving in Auburn.

Everything Fettel laid bare before him.

"Mother's disappointed, brother," Fettel sneered, "And quite frankly, so am I."

Quite frankly, he was getting sick of hearing about Mother all of the time.

Point Man whirled and grabbed Fettel by his throat. The winds around them seemed to intensify and he ignored them as he pressed the end of his gun to Fettel's head and squeezed several rounds into him, over and over. With each shot, the world around them seemed to tremble and spasm, almost as if it were a living thing in pain.

Finally, Point Man found himself leaving one hell and returning to another. He was standing in front of his mother again inside the Vault. Stokes and Beckett had done quite a good job on holding back Alma's monsters.

Alma appeared to be in the worst pain imaginable, but she also seemed defiant to it. She hissed and groaned, clutching her stomach in agony. So pitiful. Point Man almost felt pity seeing her like that and then he remembered that she wasn't just a terrible monster that had been made by Armacham. She wasn't just that sick thing that everyone had worked hard to create and other to destroy. She wasn't just some weapon.

She was still his mother.

Fettel suddenly reappeared at her side and smiled with contempt. "Make your choice, brother. Make it now," he whispered, "You get one last chance. Leave them behind. They are dying off one by one. But here, you are a God among them. They will fear you now."

Point Man looked back at Stokes and Beckett once more. She could obviously see the decision he had made and she moaned, shaking her head with pain.

"No. Don't ... " she begged.

Point Man closed his eyes and he slowly walked toward his mother. He stood by the right side of her while Fettel stood at the left. Alma smiled and took a deep inhale, savoring the desperate sounds of Stokes and Beckett as thousands of apparitions appeared at their side and behind them. The Wade family truly appeared to be Gods as they stood before the carnage of their lesser beings. Alma's wicked laugh echoed through the air, shattering above the sounds of blood and violence.

NO ACTUAL DELTA FORCE OPERATIVES WERE HARMED IN THIS PRODUCTION. BUT A FEW DEMONS, REPLICA AND ARMACHAM OPERATIVES MAY HAVE BEEN HORRIBLY KILLED IN THE ATTEMPT.

THE END


End file.
